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A  DRYAD 
From  a  Photograph  by  A  lexauder  Black 


PHOTOGRAPHY 

INDOORS  AND  OUT 


A  BOOK  FOR  AMATEURS 


BY 

ALEXANDER  BLACK 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1893, 
By  ALEXANDER  BLACK. 


All  rights  reserved. 


PREFACE. 


Probably  photography  is  to-day  the  most  pop- 
ular of  hobbies.  Indeed,  the  camera  has  come 
into  such  general  favor  that  we  may  scarcely 
speak  of  photography  any  longer  as  a  hobby,  as 
a  study  or  amusement  delighting  any  special  or 
limited  class.  Nowadays  everybody  takes  photo- 
graphs —  who  can  get  them ;  and  sun  drawings, 
after  having  been  a  great  novelty,  have  taken 
their  place  among  the  pleasantly  familiar  things 
of  every-day  life. 

A  critical  Englishman  once  said  that  he  would 
like  photography  better  if  it  were  not  for  the 
pictures.  The  remark  was  doubtless  intended  as 
a  rebuke  to  the  people  who,  in  their  eagerness 
for  the  pictorial  result,  forget  that  photography 
is  a  science,  and  as  a  science  requires  careful 
study  and  a  clear  understanding  of  the  optical 
and  chemical  laws  upon  which  it  has  developed. 

I  will  admit  having  seen  photographs  that 
made  the  Englishman's  remark  seem  almost  rea- 
sonable ;  but  I  do  not  count  myself  among  those 


PREFACE. 


who  think  that  in  photography  the  pictures  are 
a  secondary  consideration.  It  is  not  by  photo- 
graphy as  an  incident  in  the  study  of  chemistry 
that  my  affections  have  been  stolen,  but  by  pho- 
tography the  mirror  of  nature,  the  handmaid  of 
the  artist.  We  all  love  pictures,  and  we  can  love 
them  without  hating  optics  or  chemistry. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
optics  and  chemistry  are  photography's  etymo- 
logy and  grammar,  and  this  book  is  addressed 
particularly  to  those  amateurs  who,  while  they 
acquire  their  chief  pleasure  from  the  pictures  as 
pictures,  have  sufficient  respect  for  the  study 
and  a  strong  enough  purpose  toward  good  work 
to  seek  real  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  photo- 
graphy. 

I  have  sought  to  convey  this  knowledge  in 
every-day  language.  I  shall  frighten  no  one  with 
A1K(S04)2.12H20  when  I  mean  alum.  In  the 
story  of  the  earlier  chapters  I  have  endeavored 
to  sketch  the  primary  principles  of  photography. 
In  the  chapters  following  are  hints  which  it  is 
to  be  hoped  the  amateur  may  find  to  be  a  prac- 
tical aid  in  his  home  gallery,  in  the  field,  and  in 
the  many  artistic  applications  of  modern  photo- 
graphy. 

Many  readers  of  my  photographic  articles  have 
asked,  "  What  sort  of  a  camera  shall  I  get?" 
This  puzzling  question  and  others  not  so  puzzling 
I  have  tried  to  answer  in  the  right  place.  Within 


PREFACE. 


V 


space  so  limited  it  is  possible  only  to  sketch  the 
chief  and  more  familiar  processes,  and  I  make  no 
apology  for  omitting  much  in  the  way  of  for- 
mulas, etc.,  which  the  beginner  may  wish  to  seek 
when  he  has  ceased  being  a  beginner. 

Thanks  are  due  to  the  publishers  of  the  Cen- 
tury, St  Nicholas,  Harper's  Young  People, 
Wide  Awake,  and  the  American  Amateur  Pho- 
tographer for  kind  permission  to  use  certain 
illustrations  appearing  in  this  volume. 

A.  B. 

Brooklyn,  Sept.  1, 1893. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Sun  tries  to  Speak   1 

II.  First  "  Pictures  op  Silver  "       ...  8 

III.  The  Pathfinders   17 

IV.  The  Trials  and  Triumphs  of  Daguerre  .  27 
V.  Seeking  Easier  Paths   35 

VI.  The  Wet  Plate  46 

VII.  The  Camera  in  Modern  Photography  .      .  58 

VIII.  The  Home  Gallery  76 

IX.  Flash-light  Photography       .      .      .  .98 

X.  Rambles  in  Nature's  Gallery    .      .      .  109 
XI.  The  Hand  Camera    .      .      .      .      .  .122 

XII.  The  Negative  131 

XIII.  The  Dark-Room  .      .      .      .  .  .136 

XIV.  Developing  the  Image  148 

XV.  Sun  Printing  from  the  Negative  .      .     *.  164 

XVI.  Various  Methods  of  Printing    .      .       .  180 
XVII.  Transparencies,  Lantern  Slides,  and  En- 
largements  192 

XVIII.  "  Mystery  "  Pictures  204 

XIX.  Science,  Art,  and  the  Camera   .      .      .  208 

XX.  "  Birds  of  a  Feather  "  216 

APPENDIX. 

Notes  on  the  Chemistry  of  Photography    .      .  223 

Photography  in  Colors  226 

Table  of  the  Elements  227 


viii  CONTENTS. 

English  Weights  and  Measures  228 

French  Weights  and  Measures       .      .      •      r.  229 

Stereoscopic  Photography  229 

Elsden's  Table  of  Poisons  and  Antidotes  .  .  230 
Formulas  for  Developing  Dry  Plates      .      •      .  231 

"X-Ray"  Photography  234 

Explanation  of  Certain  Photographic  Terms  •  235 
Table  for  Enlargements        .      .      •      .      .  237 

Books  for  Reference  238 

Index  241 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PLATES  FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS. 

PACING 
PAGE 

A  Dryad.    By  Alexander  Black.  Frontispiece. 

The  Card  Players.   By  Alfred  Stieglitz    ...  14 


The  Friar.    By  Horace  Warren  Gridley  .       .       .  .20 

Childhood.    By  William  Schmidt  38 

The  Victim  of  a  Runaway.    Dramatic  group  from  Alex- 
ander Black's  Picture  Play,  "  A  Capital  Courtship  "       .  54 

Window  Portraiture  82 

Cloud  Study.    By  Arthur  Scott  106 

"  Miss  Jerry."  By  Alexander  Black  .  .  .  .110 
Child  and  a  Book.  By  F.  A.  Hetherington  .  .  .  116 
The  Story  of  a  Bermuda  Donkey.   By  H.  C.  Van- 

derveer  120 

Sunset  on  the  St.  Lawrence.    By  James  Stebbins,  Jr.  126 

Urcilla.    By  Charles  J.  Dampf  140 

A  Negative  that  Expanded  152 

"  Good  Night  !  "  By  John  E.  Dumont  ....  174 
In  St.  Augustine   212 

TEXT  DRAWINGS. 

PAGE 

The  Camera  Obscura  6 

Action  of  Visual  Rays  (Fig.  1)  .      .      .      .      .  12 


X  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Action  of  Photographic  Rays  (Fig.  2)  .      .      •  .13 

Action  of  Heat  Rays  (Fig.  3)  13 

The  Principle  of  the  Camera  Lucida  .  .  .18 
The  Camera  of  the  Human  Eye      ....  60 

Astigmatism  (Fig.  4)  61 

Forms  of  Single  Lenses  (Fig.  5)  63 

Aberration  in  Lenses  (Figs.  6  and  7)  .  .  .  .64 
Lens  Combinations  (Figs.  8,  9,  10  and  11)  .       .    65,  66,  67 

Drop  Shutter  (Fig.  12)  73 

Studio  Roof-Light  (Fig.  13)  78 

Arrangement  for  Window  Portraiture  (Fig.  14)  -  82 
Positions  in  Photographing  Interior  (Fig.  15)     .  95 

Position  of  Flashlight  (Fig.  16)  103 

Diagram  illustrating  Danger  of  Camera  Movement 

(Fig.  17).  113 

Focusing  Gauge  (Fig.  18)  115 

Vignetting  Screen  (Fig.  19)  169 

Enlarging  Apparatus  (Fig.  20)   202 


PHOTOGRAPHY  INDOORS  AND  OUT. 


CHAPTER  L 

THE  SUN  TRIES  TO  SPEAK. 

When  the  first  man,  wandering  in  the  wild 
garden  of  which  he  found  himself  to  be  the  only 
human  inhabitant,  approached  the  brink  of  some 
quiet  pool,  and  looking  down,  saw  for  the  first  time 
his  own  surprised  face,  how  novel  must  have  been 
his  emotions !  Adam  had  scanned  all  that  nature 
cast  about  him.  He  had  perhaps  studied  the 
wonder  of  his  own  form,  the  symmetry  of  his 
limbs,  the  grace  and  power  of  his  hands.  But 
now  he  saw  his  own  eyes. 

This  first  photograph  must  have  been  a  sight 
upon  which  Adam  gazed  long  and  wonderingly. 
And  can  we  not  readily  believe  that  this  first 
subject  of  the  sun's  portrait  -  painting  art  —  the 
first  "sitter"  in  the  gallery  of  nature — longed 
at  some  time  to  seize  and  carry  away  the  pictures 
he  saw  in  the  water  ?  Certainly  the  people  who 
followed  Adam  continued  for  many  years  to  wish 
that  reflected  images  might  be  captured.    But  the 


2 


THE  SUN  TRIES  TO  SPEAK. 


tantalizing  visions,  the  traceries  drawn  life-size  in 
the  water,  or  glowing  in  miniature  on  the  bur- 
nished surface  of  a  shield,  vanished  and  returned 
without  human  control. 

The  Chinese  have  a  tradition  that  the  sun  has 
photographed  a  landscape  on  a  frozen  stream. 
Two  hundred  years  ago  the  French  writer  Fenelon 
said  in  his  fanciful  story,  "line  Voyage  Sup- 
pose : 99  "  There  was  no  painter  in  that  country  ; 
but  if  anybody  wished  to  have  the  portrait  of  a 
friend,  of  a  picture,  a  beautiful  landscape,  or  of 
any  other  object,  water  was  placed  in  great  basins 
of  gold  or  silver,  and  the  object  desired  to  be 
painted  was  placed  in  front  of  the  water.  After 
a  while  the  water  froze  and  became  a  glass  mir- 
ror, on  which  an  ineffaceable  image  remained." 

The  sun  really  began  in  Adam's  time  to  tell  his 
wonderful  secret.  Adam  must  have  noticed  that 
light  browned  his  skin,  if  he  did  not  understand 
the  sun's  habit  of  painting  the  leaves  green  or 
reddening  the  side  of  the  apple.  And  when 
Adam's  boy,  straddling  his  father's  knee,  ex- 
claimed, "  Papa,  I  see  myself  in  your  eyes !  "  the 
riddle  of  the  lens  came  very  close  to  discovery. 

Ancient  men  must  have  noticed  another  photo- 
graphic principle.  In  the  shadow  of  a  tree  the 
sunlight  falling  through  a  chink  between  the 
leaves  does  not  make  a  bright  spot  of  irregular 
outline  like  the  opening  through  which  it  passes, 
but  makes  a  circular  image  —  a  photograph  of 


THE  SUN  TRIES  TO  SPEAK. 


3 


the  sun,  in  forming  which  the  opening  amid  the 
leaves  has,  by  focusing  the  rays  of  light,  acted  as 
a  lens. 

What  people  call  the  "  romance  of  discovery  " 
is,  indeed,  a  tale  of  hairbreadth  escapes.  A  prin- 
ciple like  that  of  photography  seems  at  scores  of 
times  on  the  point  of  discovery ;  and  it  is  highly 
interesting  to  witness  the  manner  in  which  wise 
men,  helped  by  accident,  but  not  helped  enough 
or  at  the  right  time,  do  not  discover  it. 

Light,  the  great  first  principle  of  photography, 
has  piqued  and  excited  scientific  men  from  the 
very  beginning.  For  a  long  time  it  was  supposed 
that  sight  sent  out  something  toward  an  object,  as 
we  reach  out  our  hands  to  touch.  We  still  use 
the  expression,  "  darting  a  look."  The  fact  that 
light  carries  the  image  to  the  eye  was  not  quickly 
accepted,  because  light  was  long  in  being  even 
slightly  comprehended. 

An  understanding  of  the  nature  and  properties 
of  light  is,  in  fact,  almost  as  new  as  photography 
itself.  Since  it  has  been  discovered  that  sight  is, 
like  hearing,  a  matter  of  physical  touch  —  that  we 
feel  light  and  color  as  we  do  sound  —  wonderful 
advances  have  been  made  in  this  branch  of  sci- 
ence. By  the  aid  of  the  spectrum  the  white  light 
of  day  is  split  into  various  parts  (just  as  the  rain- 
bow divided  it  before  there  was  any  science)  and 
experiment  has  shown  what  property  is  owned  by 
each  color. 


4 


THE  SUN  TRIES  TO  SPEAK. 


For  instance,  in  the  magical  revelations  of  the 
prism  —  forming  what  is  called  the  spectrum  — 
it  is  seen  that  the  three  so-called  primary  colors 
(red,  yellow,  blue)  produce  certain  vibrations  in 
the  rays  of  light  in  which  they  are  carried,  and 
that  these  color-laden  rays  produce  certain  corre- 
sponding vibrations  in  the  eye,  and,  indeed,  in  the 
whole  body,  each  color  having  an  influence  accord- 
ing to  its  own  particular  property.  Thus  red  pro- 
duces the  sensation  of  heat ;  yellow  produces  the 
sensation  of  light  in  the  nerves  of  the  eye  ;  while 
blue,  without  efficiency  in  producing  light  or  heat, 
has  the  power  to  produce  chemical  changes  in  ob- 
jects with  which  it  comes  in  contact. 

Naturally  men  first  knew  light  by  its  illumi- 
native power.  Its  heat  could  not  have  been  long 
in  making  itself  felt.  The  detection  of  the  chem- 
ical action,  much  less  an  understanding  of  it,  was 
a  different  matter.  Men  are  only  beginning  to 
understand  that  now.  Yet  the  earliest  men,  as  I 
have  suggested,  must  have  noticed  the  tanning 
action  of  sunlight.  The  Greeks  had  seen  the 
sun  dull  the  opal  and  the  amethyst,  and  the  Ro- 
man philosopher  Pliny  watched  sunlight  bleach 
a  piece  of  wax.  Another  Roman,  Vitruvius, 
found  sun  rays  so  skillful  in  changing  the  color 
of  paint,  that  he  took  care  to  place  his  pictures 
in  rooms  with  a  north  light.  But  for  many  cen- 
turies nothing  came  of  these  observations.  No- 
body knew  what  they  meant. 


THE  SUN  TRIES  TO  SPEAK. 


5 


Meanwhile,  long  before  men  began  to  realize 
the  meaning  of  this  chemical  action,  certain  opti- 
cal facts  became  familiar.  Globes  of  ice,  or  crys- 
tals found  in  the  earth,  probably  suggested  the 
use  of  mechanically  contrived  lenses.  The  Chi- 
nese philosopher  Confucius,  speaking  of  a  glance 
into  the  future,  has  the  phrase  "  as  we  use  glass 
to  examine  objects."  A  piece  of  Assyrian  glass 
in  the  British  Museum,  whether  made  for  magni- 
fying or  for  ornament,  has  the  general  form  of 
a  lens.    It  is  over  2000  years  old. 

It  is  difficult  to  find  much  information  of  lenses 
in  existence  before  the  introduction  of  spectacles, 
which  are  supposed  to  have  been  invented  by  a 
Florentine  monk  about  1285,  or  perhaps  by  Roger 
Bacon  shortly  before  that  time.  To  Roger  Bacon 
at  least  belongs  the  credit  of  giving  a  very  early 
description  of  the  principle  of  the  telescope.  But 
it  was  not  until  the  children  of  a  Dutch  specta- 
cle maker  accidentally  placed  in  position  a  con- 
cave and  convex  lens,  that  the  telescope  actually 
came  into  being,  and  made  way  for  the  many 
kinds  of  lenses  which  have  since  been  devised. 

Strangely  enough  light-pictures  were  first  made 
without  a  lens.  The  sun-spot  under  the  tree 
may  have  offered  the  hint ;  or  some  one  carry- 
ing a  lighted  candle  past  a  small  opening  in  a 
darkened  room  —  a  keyhole,  perhaps  —  may,  by 
throwing  the  image  of  the  flame,  upside  down, 
on  the  opposite  wall,  have  shown  to  an  observing 


6 


THE  SUN  TRIES  TO  SPEAK 


eye  that  a  small  aperture  will  collect  and  distrib- 
ute rays  of  light.  At  all  events,  in  the  sixteenth 
century  an  Italian  observer,  Baptista  Porta,  con- 
structed on  this  principle  a  complete  camera  ob- 
scura.  Making  a  small  hole  in  the  shutter  of 
a  darkened  room,  Porta  found  projected  on  the 
wall,  or  white  screen,  opposite  the  opening,  an 
inverted  picture  of  the  landscape  without. 


The  Camera  Ob  scuba. 


In  his  book  on  "  Natural  Magic  "  Porta  shows 
how  great  was  his  delight  at  the  discovery  he 
had  made.  Visitors  in  his  "  dark  room  "  are  as- 
tonished at  the  revelation.  "Now,"  exclaimed 
Porta,  "  we  can  discover  Nature's  greatest  se- 
crets !  " 

When  Porta  placed  a  lens  over  the  opening 
in  his  window  the  light  image  was,  of  course, 
much  clearer ;  and  when  he  had  placed  a  mirror 
at  such  an  angle  as  to  divert  the  rays  and  turn 
the  projected  landscape  right  side  up,  the  charm 
of  the  new  discovery  seemed  to  be  complete.  It 
became  the  fashion  to  have  devices  of  this  kind 
for  the  entertainment  of  visitors  at  country  houses, 


THE  SUN  TBIES  TO  SPEAK. 


7 


and  to  this  day  the  camera  obscura  is  a  familiar 
institution  in  public  parks  and  at  the  sea  shore, 
where  unsuspecting  strollers  are  seen  in  miniature 
by  curious  patrons  of  Porta's  invention. 

A  small  dark  box  with  a  lens,  and  with  a  semi- 
transparent  screen  at  the  back,  which  was  not 
long  in  being  devised,  was  no  different  in  prin- 
ciple from  the  dark  room  in  which  Porta  had 
first  seen  the  inverted  image  of  a  landscape,  and 
the  camera  of  to-day  is  practically  the  camera 
of  Porta.  Porta  discovered  the  principle  of  the 
camera  obscura.  The  principle  of  the  camera 
itself  was  not  so  easily  understood  or  so  quickly 
applied. 


CHAPTER  H. 

FIRST  "PICTURES  OF  SILVER." 

Every  thoroughgoing  romance  of  the  middle 
ages  introduced  an  alchemist  or  two.  The  very- 
name  brings  up  images  of  dusky  chambers  with 
mysterious  phials  and  uncanny  vapors.  These 
wizard-like  searchers,  who  kept  aloof  from  other 
men,  listening  for  the  whisper  of  a  secret  that 
nature  would  tell  to  no  one  else,  came  near  dis- 
covering a  great  many  things. 

The  object  for  which  all  of  these  alchemists,  at 
one  time  or  another,  searched  with  much  patience, 
though  with  very  little  of  what  we  would  now  call 
scientific  method,  was  that  ingredient,  never  seen 
1  but  confidently  hoped  for,  which  should  say  pres- 
to !  to  the  baser  metals  and  turn  them  into  gold. 
Like  the  other  people  who  were  peering  about  the 
earth  for  the  Fountain  of  Perpetual  Youth,  the 
alchemists  were  disappointed  in  their  particular 
search,  but  they  stumbled  upon  many  curious 
facts  which  otherwise  would  long  have  remained 
undiscovered. 

One  of  these  alchemists,  Fabricius,  tossed  some 
salt  into  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver.  Instantly 


FIRST  M  PICTURES  OF  SILVER."  9 


he  saw  the  contents  of  the  vessel  undergo  a  re- 
markable change.  A  white  deposit,  chloride  of 
silver,  was  formed  by  this  combination  ;  and  when 
the  alchemist  carried  some  of  this  "  horn  silver," 
as  he  called  it,  to  a  window,  he  was  astonished  to 
see  it  gradually  discolor  in  the  light. 

Looking  further  into  the  matter,  Fabricius,  we 
are  told,  found  that  a  surface  coated  with  chloride 
of  silver  and  placed  behind  a  lens,  was  discol- 
ored in  gradation  according  to  the  lines  of  light. 
Here,  on  the  threshold  of  photography,  Fabricius 
stopped. 

At  the  point  where  the  alchemist's  science  left 
off,  a  Frenchman's  imagination  began,  prophesy- 
ing photography  in  a  daring  way.  It  was  about 
two  hundred  years  after  Fabricius'  discovery  that 
Tiphaine  de  la  Roche  printed  a  fanciful  book,  a 
grotesque  kind  of  fairy  story,  in  which  the  reader 
is  carried  (on  a  hurricane)  among  strange  scenes 
and  stranger  people.  One  of  the  queer  inhabitants 
of  the  region  visited  by  the  romancer  tells  how 
the  genii  artists  produce  pictures.  "You  know," 
says  the  queer  inhabitant,  "  that  rays  of  light  re- 
flected from  different  bodies  form  pictures,  paint 
the  image  reflected  on  all  polished  surfaces  —  for 
example,  on  the  retina  of  the  eye,  on  water,  and  on 
glass.  The  spirits  have  sought  to  fix  these  fleet- 
ing images ;  they  have  made  a  subtle  matter  by 
means  of  which  a  picture  is  formed  in  the  twin- 
kling of  an  eye.    They  coat  a  piece  of  canvas  with 


10 


FIRST  "PICTURES  OF  SILVER." 


this  matter,  and  place  it  in  front  of  the  object  to 
be  taken.  The  first  effect  of  this  cloth  is  similar 
to  that  of  the  mirror,  but  by  means  of  its  viscous 
nature  the  prepared  canvas,  as  is  not  the  case 
with  the  mirror,  retains  a  facsimile  of  the  image. 
The  mirror  represents  images  faithfully,  but  re- 
tains none  ;  our  canvas  reflects  them  no  less  faith- 
fully, but  retains  them  all.  This  impression  of  the 
image  is  instantaneous.  The  canvas  is  removed 
and  deposited  in  a  dark  place.  An  hour  later 
the  impression  is  dry,  and  you  have  a  picture  the 
more  precious  in  that  no  art  can  imitate  its  truth- 
fulness." 

Many  of  the  early  chemists  seemed  to  have 
noticed  the  effects  of  light  on  compounds  of  silver. 
As  long  ago  as  1727  J.  H.  Schulze  tried  the  ex- 
periment of  placing  a  piece  of  paper  bearing  black 
lettering  over  a  surface  covered  with  a  mixture  of 
chalk  and  nitrate  of  silver.  The  light,  passing 
through  the  paper,  blackened  the  silver  coating 
save  in  the  lines  of  lettering  through  which  the 
light  could  not  pass,  thus  leaving  a  white  tracery 
on  the  otherwise  blackened  surface.  Here  was  the 
principle  of  photography  fully  declared.  Indeed, 
Schulze  has  been  called  the  discoverer  of  photo- 
graphy, though  much  more  remained  to  be  discov- 
ered before  photography  could  be  applied. 

An  important  step  toward  following  up  the  lit- 
tle experiment  of  Schulze  was  made  by  a  Swedish 
chemist  named  Scheele,  an  investigator  of  whom  all 


FIRST  "PICTURES  OF  SILVER." 


11 


chemists  speak  with  respect.  It  was  Scheele  who 
first  undertook  with  anything  like  scientific  care 
to  watch  the  action  of  light  on  chloride  of  silver. 
His  first  discovery  was  that  different  colored  rays 
of  light  had  different  effects  upon  the  composition. 
Thus  he  discovered  that  the  silver  quickly  discol- 
ored under  the  blue  rays  of  light,  while  the  com- 
pound was  scarcely  affected  at  all  by  red  rays. 
Another  chemist,  Senebier,  found  that  "  in  fifteen 
seconds  the  violet  rays  blackened  silver  chloride 
as  much  as  red  rays  did  in  twenty  minutes." 
Scheele's  second  discovery  was  that  light  decom- 
poses silver  chloride ;  but  exactly  what  takes  place 
in  this  decomposition  the  chemists  have  never 
yet  been  able  to  agree.  Count  Rumford  did  not 
agree  with  Scheele.  He  held  that  it  was  not 
light  but  heat  that  produced  the  chemical  change. 
But  the  heat  theory  was  soon  overthrown  by  other 
experimenters.  However,  it  is  by  no  means  cer- 
tain that  action  upon  the  compounds  of  silver  may 
not  be  affected  by  agencies  other  than  light.  In 
fact,  experiment  seems  to  show  that  an  action  sim- 
ilar to  that  produced  by  light,  if  not  the  same, 
may  be  produced  by  other  forms  of  energy,  such 
as  electricity. 

It  might  not  be  worth  while  to  follow  up  each 
of  these  steps  in  the  study  of  light  and  its  action 
on  the  silver  compounds  if  a  knowledge  of  these 
principles  was  not  so  necessary  to  any  proper  un- 
derstanding of  what  photography  means.    If  we 


12  FIEST  *•  PICTURES  OF  SILVER:' 

do  not  understand  something  of  the  meaning  of 
light  we  shall  be  in  the  dark  as  to  the  very  foun- 
dation of  photography. 

The  important  point  which  Scheele's  discovery 
began  to  emphasize  is  that  photographic  action  is 
not  performed  by  light  as  a  mass,  but  (as  I  sug- 
gested in  the  foregoing  chapter)  by  a  certain  ele- 
ment of  light.  The  visible  rays  of  light  which  have 
the  greatest  chemical  effect  upon  a  sensitive  sur- 
face are  the  blue  rays,  the  rays  at  the  blue  or  vio- 
let end  of  the  spectrum.  But  there  are  invisible 
rays  beyond  the  violet,  on  the  end  of  the  spectrum 
opposite  the  red,  which  affect  the  photographic 
plate  as  greatly  as  the  violet  rays  affect  it,  just 
as  the  invisible  rays  beyond  the  red  have,  as  Sir 
William  Herschel  discovered,  heat  as  great  as 
the  red,  if  not  greater.  Again  we  find  that  the 
rays  giving  the  sensation  of  light  to  the  eye  are 
strongest  in  the  region  of  pure  yellow  rays. 


Fig.  1.   Action  of  Visual  Rays. 


A  diagram  will  make  this  clearer.  In  Fig.  1 
we  see  a  band  illustrating  the  manner  in  which 
a  prism  splits  up  white  light  into  its  component 
parts.  The  line  rising  and  falling  illustrates  the 
visual  intensity  of  the  spectrum  colors  ;  that  is  to 


FIEST  "  PICTURES  OF  SILVER."  13 

say,  the  strength  of  the  colors  in  conveying  the 
sensation  of  light  to  the  eye.    We  see  that  the 


Fig.  2.   Action  of  Photographic  Rays. 


strongest  light  rays  are  in  the  yellow  section  of 
the  spectrum. 

Now,  if  we  look  at  Fig.  2  we  shall  see  how  dif- 
ferent the  photographic  rays  of  light  are  from 
the  visual  rays.  The  line  here  shows  the  relative 
effect  of  the  prism  colors  as  they  fall  on  a  surface 


Fig.  3.   Action  of  Heat  Rays. 


covered  with  chloride  of  silver,  and  we  discover 
that  the  rays  having  the  greatest  influence  on 
the  silver  are  those  beginning  in  the  blue  and 
running  through  the  violet  into  the  invisible  rays 
beyond.  Yellow  affects  the  silver  much  less,  and 
red  scarcely  influences  it  at  all. 

In  Fig.  3  we  have  a  line  showing  in  the  same 
manner  the  relative  quantity  of  heat  and  where  it 


14  FIRST  "PICTURES  OF  SILVER." 

is  located  among  the  different  ingredients  of  white 
light.  Whereas  the  strongest  photographic  ac- 
tion is  in  the  violet  rays  and  the  rays  beyond  the 
violet,  the  strongest  heat  action  is  found  in  the 
red  rays  and  the  rays  beyond  the  red.  Roughly 
speaking,  then,  blue  is  the  photographic  color, 
yellow  the  illuminating  color,  and  red  the  heat 
color. 

The  rays  of  light  having  that  power  of  chemical 
action  utilized  in  photography  are  called  chemical 
or  deoxidizing  rays,  but  also,  and  particularly, 
actinic  rays,  and  the  quality  possessed  by  these 
rays  is  called  actinism.  Thus  it  is  with  actinic 
light  that  photographers  are  always  particularly 
concerned;  but  the  student  of  photography  is 
obliged  to  watch  the  effects  produced  by  all  kinds 
of  light.  The  refusal  of  certain  colors  to  impress 
themselves  upon  the  ordinary  photographic  plate 
is  an  important  matter  for  consideration,  and 
must  be  kept  in  mind  by  the  operator  in  photogra- 
phy, no  matter  how  simple  a  form  his  photography 
may  take. 

But  for  a  long  time  this  question  of  color  was 
not  so  important  to  those  who  were  struggling  to 
master  the  secret  of  sun-drawing  as  the  matter 
of  chemical  action  in  general.  Step  by  step  ad- 
vanced the  discovery  of  silver's  remarkable  prop- 
erties. Professor  Charles,  of  Paris,  the  inventor 
of  the  hydrogen  gas  balloon,  is  said  to  have  pro- 
duced a  rough  kind  of  photograph  by  throwing 


THE  CARD  PLAYERS 

Photographic  Study  from  Life  by  Alfred  Stieglitz 


FIRST  "PICTURES  OF  SILVER."  15 


the  shadow  of  a  person's  head  on  a  sheet  of  white 
paper  covered  with  a  silver  solution.  The  shadow 
part  of  the  paper  remained  white,  while  the  illumi- 
nated remainder  darkened,  leaving  a  white  head 
in  relief. 

There  are  many  indefinite  accounts  of  experi- 
ments such  as  that  attributed  to  Professor  Charles, 
but  the  first  experiments  of  which  there  is  any- 
thing like  a  trustworthy  record  were  made  by  the 
Englishman,  Wedgwood. 

Wedgwood  was  busy  with  his  photographic  ex- 
periments at  the  close  of  the  last  century.  From 
what  he  says  about  red,  yellow,  and  violet  light  it 
seems  doubtful  whether  he  knew  anything  of  the 
discoveries  of  Scheele  and  others  in  this  direction. 
However  this  may  have  been,  he  with  great  saga- 
city copied  prints  and  paintings  on  glass  by  placing 
them  over  sheets  of  paper  or  white  leather  coated 
with  nitrate  of  silver ;  and  even  went  farther  by 
placing  his  sensitive  surface  at  the  back  of  a 
camera  obscura,  where  the  lens  might  act  upon  it. 

In  the  experiment  with  the  camera  Wedgwood 
was  not  successful.  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  who 
worked  with  Wedgwood  in  these  inquiries,  and 
who  after  Wedgwood's  death  published  an  ac- 
count of  their  experiments,  did  succeed  in  secur- 
ing impressions  of  small  objects  with  the  aid  of 
the  solar  microscope,  by  using  chloride  of  silver 
instead  of  nitrate  of  silver  in  coating  the  paper. 

The  industrious  Wedgwood  died  without  being 


16  FIRST  "PICTURES  OF  SILVER.1' 

able  to  study  one  of  his  pictures  in  any  light 
stronger  than  that  of  a  candle,  for  the  white  light 
which  made  the  print  blackened  the  whole  sheet 
when  it  was  brought  forth.  What  Wedgwood 
and  Davy  wanted,  and  what  other  experimenters 
long  sought  in  vain,  was  something  that  would 
render  the  image  on  the  paper  a  permanent  image 
—  that  would  destroy  the  sensibility  of  the  sur- 
face after  the  image  had  been  formed.  It  was 
plain  to  them  all  that  silver  not  acted  upon  in 
forming  the  image  must  somehow  be  got  rid  of  be- 
fore the  paper  could  be  taken  out  of  a  dark  place. 
Water  would  not  remove  it.  "  Nothing,"  wrote 
Davy,  "  but  a  method  of  preventing  the  unshaded 
parts  of  the  delineations  from  being  colored  by 
exposure  to  the  day  is  wanting  to  render  this  pro- 
cess as  useful  as  it  is  elegant."  But  the  experi- 
menters were  still  where  the  prints  required  to  be 
kept  —  in  the  dark. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

THE  PATHFINDERS. 

How  was  the  sun's  printed  image  to  be 
"  fixed 99  ?    This  was  the  question. 

The  obstacle  which  Wedgwood  and  Davy  en- 
countered in  their  effort  to  make  the  photo- 
graphic image  "stay  put,"  was  the  stumbling- 
block  which  for  over  thirty  years  lay  in  the  path 
of  those  who  tried  to  follow  up  the  promise  which 
the  sun  had  repeatedly  given.  What  could  re- 
move the  silver  that  had  not  been  darkened  by 
the  light,  and  thus  prevent  the  total  blackening 
of  the  sensitized  sheet  ? 

The  man  who  solved  this  mystery  was  Henry 
Fox  Talbot. 

Talbot  was  an  accomplished  student.  He  had 
tried  mathematics  and  politics  (serving  two  years 
in  Parliament),  and  after  devoting  considerable 
attention  to  the  study  of  light,  he  turned  with 
great  zeal  to  photography. 

It  appears  that  Talbot  conceived  the  idea  of 
securing  permanent  impressions  through  the  lens 
while  sketching  one  day  at  Lake  Como,  in  Italy. 
At  that  time,  the  camera  luoida  was  frequently 


18  THE  PATHFINDERS. 

used  in  sketching  from  nature,  and  Talbot  was 
availing  himself  of  the  assistance  offered  by  this 
instrument  in  making  his  sketches.  Nowadays 
we  should  not  ascribe  much  value  to  drawings 
made  in  this  way,  but  before  the  appearance  of 
photographs  the  results  were  considered  inter- 
esting. 

The  principle  of  the  camera  lucida  is  similar  to 
that  of  the  camera  obscura,  the  difference  lying 
in  the  reflection  of  the  image  by  means  of  mirrors 
placed  at  an  angle  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
outline  might  be  traced,  as  illustrated  in  the 


The  Principle  of  the  Camera  Lucida. 


Object  at  C  D  is  reflected  through  a  prism  on  surfaces  AB  to  eye  at  E. 
The  eye  then  appears  to  see  object  on  paper  below,  where  the  outlines  are 
traced.    The  same  effect  is  produced  by  the  use  of  a  mirror  at  an  angle. 

accompanying  drawing.  Struck  by  the  beauty 
of  the  lake  scenery,  as  minutely  reflected  under 
his  eye,  Talbot  formed  the  notion  of  fixing  the 
image  upon  some  sensitive  surface. 

At  this  time,  Talbot  knew  very  little  of  what 


THE  PATHFINDERS. 


19 


had  been  done  by  Wedgwood  and  Davy.  It  was 
not  until  after  he  had  begun  similar  experiments 
that  he  learned  the  particulars  of  Wedgwood's 
unsuccessful  use  of  the  camera  obscura.  At  the 
outset,  Talbot  hoped  to  secure  sun  prints  on  paper 
spread  with  chloride  of  silver,  and  to  hide  the 
prints  from  the  light  in  portfolios,  from  which 
they  might  be  taken  for  inspection  in  candle- 
light. The  first  prints  were  of  flowers  and  leaves, 
which  made  their  impression  in  white  on  sensi- 
tized paper. 

From  these  simple  tests  of  the  action  of  light 
on  silver,  Talbot  pressed  forward,  step  by  step, 
until  one  day  he  succeeded,  by  an  hour's  expos- 
ure, in  making  a  lens  picture  in  his  camera 
obscura.  This  was  in  1835,  and  numerous  pic- 
tures were  made  in  the  same  way  during  that 
year. 

Talbot's  success  in  this  and  later  experiments 
is  explained  by  the  fact  that  he  managed  to  ren- 
der his  chloride  of  silver  more  sensitive  to  light 
than  any  of  his  predecessors  had  been  able  to 
make  it.  His  process  consisted  in  soaking  his 
sheet  of  paper  in  a  weak  solution  of  common  salt. 
One  side  of  the  paper  was  then  brushed  over 
with  a  weak  nitrate  of  silver  solution.  Chloride 
of  silver  thus  was  formed  on  the  surface  of  the 
paper,  but  the  manner  of  forming  it  left  a  slight 
excess  of  silver,  by  which  the  surface  of  the  paper 
was  rendered  so  sensitive  that  only  a  short  expos- 


20 


THE  PATHFINDERS. 


ure  was  necessary.  A  few  moments  only  were 
necessary  to  darken  it  in  the  light. 

But  the  great  bugbear  of  "  fixing  "  had  yet  to 
be  conquered.  After  many  trials,  Talbot  hit  upon 
a  successful  method.  When  the  printing  had 
been  completed,  the  paper  was  thoroughly  washed, 
and  then  soaked  in  a  solution  of  common  salt,  or 
in  a  solution  of  either  iodide  or  bromide  of  pot- 
ash. Emerging  from  such  a  bath,  the  print  was 
found  to  have  lost  its  sensibility,  and  the  image 
might  at  last  be  safely  examined  in  daylight. 

Talbot  might  well  be  delighted  with  this  dis- 
covery, for  it  bridged  over  a  great  chasm  in  pho- 
tographic progress.  Sun  printing  could  now  be- 
come a  permanently  useful  process. 

In  the  midst  of  the  exultation  following  this 
discovery,  and  while  Talbot  was  preparing  to 
communicate  the  facts  of  his  process  to  the  world, 
the  news  came  that  a  Frenchman  had  also  suc- 
ceeded in  fixing  the  camera  image.  By  what 
means  the  Frenchman  had  accomplished  the  feat 
no  one  in  England  could  learn  at  the  time. 

Meanwhile,  Prof.  Faraday  announced  Talbot's 
discovery  to  the  Royal  Institution,  giving  to  the 
process  Talbot's  name  of  "  photogenic  drawing," 
and  exhibiting  an  interesting  series  of  prints.  A 
few  days  later  (in  January,  1839)  Talbot  himself 
read  before  the  Royal  Society  a  full  description 
of  his  method.  When  Talbot's  discoveries  and 
the  time  of  their  announcement  are  taken  into 


THE  FRIAR 

From  a  Photograph  by  Horace  Warren  Griolley 


THE  PATHFINDERS. 


21 


account,  we  may  see  that  it  is  not  without  some 
justice  that  he  has  been  called  "the  Caxton  of 
sun  printing." 

Let  us  now  turn  to  France  and  look  at  the 
work  of  other  pathfinders. 

The  little  shop  of  Chevalier  the  optician,  on 
the  Quai  de  FHorloge  in  Paris,  was  a  popular 
resort  early  in  this  century  for  students  and  ex- 
perimenters in  various  channels  associated  with 
optics.  With  each  of  these  enthusiasts,  however 
wild  his  scheme  might  be,  Chevalier  was  willing 
to  talk.  But  one  class  of  enthusiasts  rather 
taxed  his  patience  —  those  tireless  stragglers  who 
sought  to  fix  the  image  of  the  camera  obscura. 

Chevalier  used  to  smile  at  the  hopeful  ardor 
with  which  one  experimenter  after  another  tried 
with  lens,  dark  box,  and  sensitive  surface  to  per- 
manently imprison  the  pictures  drawn  by  the  sun. 

One  day  —  it  was  in  the  year  1825  —  a  pale, 
timid,  shabbily-dressed  young  man  came  into  the 
shop  and  asked  the  price  of  one  of  the  new  cam- 
eras then  being  sold. 

Upon  hearing  the  price  the  stranger  gave  signs 
of  great  disappointment.  Chevalier  ventured  to 
ask  the  young  man  what  use  he  wished  to  make 
of  the  camera. 

"  I  have  succeeded,"  replied  the  young  man, 
"in  fixing  the  image  of  the  camera  on  paper. 
But  I  have  only  a  rough  apparatus,  a  deal  box 
furnished  with  an  object  glass." 


22 


THE  PATHFINDERS. 


"Here,"  thought  Chevalier,  "is  another  of 
those  poor  fools  who  want  to  fix  the  camera  im- 
age," but  added  aloud  :  "  I  know  several  men 
of  science  who  are  working  for  that  result,  but  as 
yet  they  have  not  succeeded.  Have  you  been 
more  fortunate?" 

The  stranger  —  as  Chevalier's  story  goes  — 
pulled  out  an  old  pocket-book,  and  revealed  a  slip 
of  paper  bearing  an  image  that  truly  astonished 
the  optician,  for  it  was  a  clearly  defined  view  of 
Paris,  obviously  made  with  a  camera. 

"  How  did  you  do  this  ?  "  demanded  Chevalier. 

The  young  man  exhibited  a  little  bottle  of 
liquid,  which  he  gave  to  Chevalier  with  instruc- 
tions which  he  said  would  enable  the  optician  to 
obtain  like  results.  Then  the  gloomy  stranger 
went  away,  and  Chevalier  never  saw  him  again  nor 
learned  who  he  was.  As  for  the  liquid  and  the 
instructions,  Chevalier  tried  both  but  could  do 
nothing  with  them,  possibly  because  he  did  not 
prepare  the  paper  in  the  proper  way,  or  missed 
some  link  that  made  the  chain  of  operation  com- 
plete. Yet  the  optician  never  ceased  to  believe 
that  he  had  seen  one  of  the  men  who  first  mas- 
tered the  great  secret  of  photography. 

Among  the  occasional  visitors  at  Chevalier's 
shop  was  Joseph  Nicephore  Niepce,  who  was,  as 
we  shall  see,  a  man  of  exceptional  qualities  of 
mind.  Niepce  was  born  at  Chalons-sur-Saone,  in 
1765.    He  received  a  good  education*,  and  would 


THE  PATHFINDERS,  23 

have  entered  the  ministry  but  for  the  outbreak  of 
the  French  Revolution.  He  served  for  some  time 
in  the  Republican  army,  until  ill  health  forced 
him  to  retire.  Settling  down  at  Chalons,  he 
busied  himself  with  scientific  matters.  Aided  by 
his  brother  Claude  he  brought  out  a  machine 
called  the  pyrelophore,  for  propelling  vessels  by 
aid  of  hot  air,  and  also  invented  a  species  of  bi- 
cycle. He  afterward  turned  his  attention  to  the 
vexed  question  of  sun  printing. 

Niepce's  first  attempts  were  along  the  lines 
suggested  by  lithography.  He  discovered  that 
bitumen,  a  substance  then  called  "  Jew's  pitch," 
refuses  to  dissolve  after  it  has  been  acted  upon 
by  light.  Of  this  trait  in  bitumen  he  at  once  took 
advantage.  Dissolving  bitumen  in  oil  of  laven- 
der, he  spread  a  thin  layer  upon  a  smooth  litho- 
graphic stone.  The  drawing  he  wished  to  copy 
was  then  varnished,  a  process  increasing  the  trans- 
parency of  the  paper,  and  laid  upon  the  prepared 
stone.  After  an  exposure  in  sunlight  it  was  taken 
off.  Wherever  black  lines  appeared  in  the  draw- 
ing the  bitumen  beneath  remained  untouched  by 
the  light,  and  when  oil  of  lavender  was  poured 
upon  the  surface  of  the  stone,  these  lines  dis- 
solved, leaving  the  light-touched  parts  hard  and 
fixed.  The  acid  afterward  applied  would  eat  into 
the  stone  along  the  lines  thus  left  free  from  bitu- 
men. Metal  plates  proved  better  than  stone,  and 
Niepce's  "  heliography  "  was  established  as  a  new 
art. 


m 

24  THE  PATHFINDERS. 

Niepce  took  some  of  his  bitumen  pictures  to 
England,  and  would  have  liked  to  exhibit  them 
before  the  Royal  Society,  but  being  unwilling  at 
that  time,  before  carrying  his  experiments  far- 
ther, to  tell  how  his  pictures  were  made,  the 
society  refused  to  consider  the  discovery. 

Probably  Niepce  had  secured  the  first  perma- 
nent photograph  ever  made,  but  naturally  he 
longed  to  make  pictures  directly  from  nature,  and 
to  this  end  turned  his  attention  to  the  camera  ob- 
scura.  His  first  camera  was  made  from  a  cigar 
box  into  which  the  lenses  of  a  solar  microscope  had 
been  fixed.  Here  again,  after  trying  various 
other  substances,  Niepce  made  use  of  bitumen. 
The  inventor  himself  gives  this  graphic  account  of 
his  work :  — 

"  The  discovery  which  I  have  made,  and  to 
which  I  give  the  name  of  heliography,  consists  in 
producing  spontaneously,  by  the  action  of  light, 
with  gradations  of  tints  from  black  to  white,  the 
images  received  by  the  camera  obscura.  Light 
acts  chemically  upon  bodies.  It  is  absorbed ;  it 
combines  with  them,  and  communicates  to  them 
new  properties.  Thus  it  augments  the  natural 
consistency  of  some  of  these  bodies ;  it  solidifies 
them  even  ;  and  renders  them  more  or  less  insol- 
uble, according  to  the  duration  or  intensity  of  its 
action.  The  substance  which  has  succeeded  best 
with  me  is  asphaltum  dissolved  in  oil  of  lavender. 
A  tablet  of  plated  silver  is  to  be  highly  polished, 


THE  PATHFINDERS. 


25 


on  which  a  thin  coating  of  the  varnish  is  to  be 
applied  with  a  light  roll  of  soft  skin.  The  plate 
when  dry  may  be  immediately  submitted  to  the 
action  of  light  in  the  focus  of  the  camera.  But 
even  after  having  been  thu£  exposed  a  length 
of  time  sufficient  for  receiving  the  impressions  of 
external  objects,  nothing  is  apparent  to  show  that 
these  impressions  exist.  The  forms  of  the  future 
picture  still  remain  invisible.  The  next  opera- 
tion, then,  is  to  disengage  the  shrouded  imagery, 
and  this  is  accomplished  by  a  solvent,  consisting 
of  one  part  by  volume  of  essential  oil  of  lavender 
and  ten  of  oil  of  white  petroleum.  Into  this  liquid 
the  exposed  tablet  is  plunged,  and  the  operator, 
observing  it  by  reflected  light,  begins  to  perceive 
the  images  of  the  objects  to  which  it  had  been 
exposed  gradually  unfolding  their  forms.  The 
plate  is  then  lifted  out,  allowed  to  drain,  and  well 
washed  with  water." 

The  inventor  goes  on  to  say :  "  It  was,  however, 
to  be  desired  that,  by  blackening  the  metal  plate, 
we  could  obtain  all  the  gradations  of  tone  from 
black  to  white.  The  substance  which  I  now  em- 
ploy for  this  purpose  is  iodine,  which  possesses 
the  property  of  evaporating  at  the  ordinary  tem- 
perature." 

Thus  the  bare  plate  represented  the  shadows  in 
the  picture,  and  Niepce  used  iodine  to  blacken  the 
metal  and  increase  the  contrast  between  the  plate 
surface  and  the  patches  of  asphaltum.    But  with 


26 


THE  PATHFINDERS. 


all  the  devices  he  had  employed,  Niepce  could 
scarcely  produce  a  picture  in  full  and  natural 
relief.  There  were  other  difficulties.  So  long 
a  time  —  eight  hours  or  more  —  was  required 
to  photograph  a  landscape  that  the  form  of  the 
shadows  at  the  time  the  lens  was  uncovered  was 
greatly  different  from  the  shape  they  assumed  be- 
fore the  exposure  was  at  an  end,  and  it  may  read- 
ily be  imagined  that  there  could  be  little  relief 
or  truthfulness  of  effect.  And  then,  the  bitumen 
being  hardened  only  on  the  upper  surface,  the  de- 
velopment and  washing  often  dissolved  the  lower 
layers  and  damaged  the  image. 

Niepce's  struggles  and  successes  were,  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  known  to  Chevalier,  who  one  day  de- 
scribed them,  so  far  as  he  then  could,  to  another 
frequenter  of  his  little  shop.  The  man  to  whom 
he  gave  an  account  of  Niepce's  products  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  dropping  in  at  least  once  a  week 
to  talk  with  Chevalier.  His  name  was  Daguerre, 
and  at  the  time  when  Chevalier  mentioned  the 
name  of  Niepce,  Daguerre  was  in  a  state  of  great 
enthusiasm  over  some  surprising  discoveries  of 
his  own. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  DAGUERRE. 

Daguerre  was  a  scene  painter.  He  had  re- 
ceived his  art  training  in  the  studio  of  Dagotti, 
who  had  "created"  some  of  the  most  brilliant 
pictures  seen  on  the  stage  of  the  Grand  Opera 
at  Paris.  Daguerre  was  a  quick  pupil,  and  when 
he  began  painting  on  his  own  account  it  soon  be- 
came plain  that  he  would  excel  his  master. 

He  was  not  content  with  the  ordinary  methods 
of  scene  painting.  By  painting  on  both  sides  of 
the  canvas,  and  lighting  first  one  side  and  then 
the  other,  he  produced  effects  then  entirely  new, 
such  as  those  of  sunset  and  moonrise,  volcanic 
fire,  lightning,  and  so  on  through  various  de- 
vices. He  was  not  only  of  an  artistic  and  inven- 
tive disposition,  but  of  a  gay  temper  as  well ; 
and  the  story  goes  that  he  frequently  joined  in 
stage  dances  for  love  of  the  merriment,  in  the 
midst  of  scenery  of  his  own  painting. 

Daguerre  delighted  Paris  one  summer  by 
opening  a  diorama.  On  vast  rolls  of  canvas  he 
painted  with  great  care  and  finish  a  variety  of 
scenes  which,  by  the  use  of  changing  illumination 


28  TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  DAGUERRE. 

and  other  means,  were  made  to  change  in  a  manner 
very  mystifying  to  most  observers.  Street  scenes 
passed  from  day  to  night,  lights  twinkling  in 
the  windows.  In  his  landscapes  volcanoes  blazed 
and  villages  were  shattered  by  earthquakes. 

In  preparing  his  preliminary  drawings  for  these 
outdoor  scenes,  Daguerre  frequently  made  use  of 
the  camera  obscura  and  the  camera  lucida,  and 
like  so  many  others  before  him  he  soon  began  to 
wish  there  was  some  way  of  compelling  the  re- 
flected pictures  to  remain  where  the  sun  placed 
them.  He  had  heard  of  experiments  with  sensi- 
tized surfaces,  but  he  had  no  knowledge  of  chem- 
istry. He  had  not  as  yet  even  the  privilege  of 
beginning  where  others  had  left  off,  for  he  did 
not  know  what  others  had  accomplished,  and  in 
that  day  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  find  out. 

Beginning  at  the  beginning,  however,  Daguerre 
secured  a  suitable  camera  from  Chevalier  and 
set  to  work.  No  one  need  be  told  how  many  dis- 
appointments fill  up  the  life  of  such  an  exper- 
imenter. Scores,  hundreds  of  searchers  for  the 
photographic  secret  had  been  frightened  off  by 
the  seemingly  insurmountable  difficulties  of  the 
process  after  it  had  advanced  to  the  point  where 
the  image  first  appears. 

Daguerre  differed  greatly  from  any  other  well- 
known  worker  in  this  field.  In  the  first  place  he 
had  no  scientific  prejudices.  He  did  not  see  half 
so  many  difficulties  as  did  the  great  scientists  to 


TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  DAGUERRE.  29 


whom  chemistry  was  perfectly  familiar.  In  the 
second  place  he  was  not  merely  playing  with  ex- 
periment. He  was  intensely  interested  in  succeed- 
ing. He  was  determined  to  capture  the  image  of 
the  camera  and  simply  refused  to  fail. 

Eager  to  secure  all  the  light  possible  from  ex* 
periments  that  had  already  been  made,  Daguerre's 
first  step,  after  hearing  from  Chevalier  about 
Niepce,  was  to  write  to  Chalons.  Niepce  was  in- 
clined to  distrust  people  who  inquired  into  his  ex- 
periments, and  his  feeling  on  receiving  Daguerre's 
letter  was  indicated  by  his  exclamation,  "  Here 's 
another  of  those  Parisians  who  wish  to  pump  me !  " 
But  when  he  came  to  Paris,  on  his  way  from  Eng- 
land, he  hunted  up  Daguerre,  and  the  result  was 
that  the  two  men  formed  a  partnership,  each 
agreeing  to  communicate  to  the  other  all  he  had 
discovered  or  might  discover,  and  each  to  share 
in  the  profit  and  glory  of  the  general  result  — 
should  there  happen  to  be  any  of  either. 

Upon  first  hearing  from  Daguerre,  Niepce  had 
been  certain,  and  said  so,  that  Daguerre  was  much 
further  advanced  than  himself.  This  may  have 
been  true  as  to  Daguerre's  ideas,  but  his  actual 
results  were  less  available  than  the  results  which 
Niepce  had  reached.  This  was  readily  seen  when 
the  two  men,  after  much  diffidence  on  the  part  of 
Niepce,  came  to  explain  their  discoveries  to  each 
other. 

After   signing   an   agreement  with  Niepce, 


30  TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  DAGUERRE. 

Daguerre  returned  from  Chalons  in  a  state  of 
mind  not  altogether  pleasant.  Triumph  did  not 
seem  much  nearer  than  before.  Yet  it  seemed 
incredible  that  Niepce  and  himself  should,  after 
going  so  far,  fail  to  conquer  that  phantom  which, 
like  some  fragile  butterfly,  was  always  mangled  in 
the  capturing. 

Daguerre  shut  himself  up  in  his  laboratory.  If 
the  secret  he  sought  was  anywhere  in  chemis- 
try he  was  bound  to  have  it.  He  buried  himself 
in  books.  For  nearly  two  years  he  lived  in  the 
midst  of  ponderous  scientific  volumes,  bottles,  re- 
torts, and  melting  pots.  No  one,  not  even  Mme. 
Daguerre,  was  ever  permitted  to  enter  the  dark 
chamber  in  which  the  scene  painter  was  fighting 
out  his  fight  with  chemistry.  Niepce  died,  with- 
out finding  success.  Daguerre  still  pursued  his 
labors  without  a  halt.  Everything  was  neglected 
for  the  laboratory. 

Poor  Mme.  Daguerre  became  frightened  at  her 
husband's  habits.  Perhaps,  she  thought,  he  has 
gone  mad.  She  consulted  physicians  as  to  the 
possibility  of  insanity.  She  asked  scientific  men 
if  they  really  thought  the  object  of  her  husband's 
search  was  not  a  crazy  dream,  a  sort  of  will-o'-the- 
wisp,  never  actually  to  be  laid  hold  upon.  The 
scientific  men  shook  their  heads,  and  Mme.  Da- 
guerre contented  herself  with  their  cautious  judg- 
ment that  what  her  husband  sought  was  "  not 
absolutely  impossible/" 


TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  DAGUERRE.  31 

Taking  a  hint  from  Niepce's  method,  Daguerre 
tried  bitumen,  but  found,  as  Niepce  had  found, 
that  this  substance  could  not  be  trusted  to  pro- 
duce with  any  certainty  a  good  photographic 
image.  Following  up  the  use  of  metal  plates 
coated  with  silver,  Daguerre  made  new  experi- 
ments. Niepce  had  used  iodine  to  darken  the 
plates.  Daguerre  exposed  the  silver-coated  plate 
to  the  vapor  of  iodine  and  made  "  iodized  silver 
plates,"  which  received  an  impression  with  two  or 
three  hours'  exposure.  But  the  image  was  of  poor 
quality.  Even  a  well-lighted  object  produced  but 
a  faint  impression. 

An  accident  revealed  to  Daguerre  the  advantage 
of  combining  silver  and  iodine  ;  another  accident 
revealed  to  him  a  better  means  of  developing  the 
plates  than  any  he  or  Niepce  had  been  able  to 
find  by  their  direct  experiment. 

In  the  course  of  his  experiments  he  one  day 
removed  from  his  camera  a  plate  which  failed  to 
show  any  traces  of  an  image.  Regretting  the  in- 
sufficient exposure  (as  he  then  considered  it),  Da- 
guerre put  away  the  plate  in  a  cupboard  until 
such  time  as  he  might  clear  it  off  for  further  use. 

On  going  to  the  cupboard  the  next  morning, 
he  found  a  clearly  defined  image  on  the  surface 
of  the  plate. 

Here  was  a  mystery  ! 

Daguerre  gave  a  short  exposure  to  another 
plate  and  placed  it  in  the  cupboard  beside  the 


32  TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  BAGUERRE. 

first.  Again  an  image  appeared.  Some  chemical 
fumes  in  the  closet  were  bringing  out  the  images 
on  the  plates. 

But  which  ?  This  could  only  be  discovered  by 
trying  separately  each  chemical  substance  in  the 
cupboard.  And  after  carefully  following  this  plan 
the  experimenter  found  that  the  image  was  brought 
out  by  the  fumes  from  some  uncovered  mercury 
in  a  saucer. 

Daguerre  was  a  happy  man  that  day.  When  we 
recall  the  years  of  toil  he  had  given  up  to  this  un- 
promising search,  we  can  understand  the  nervous 
excitement  in  which  he  watched  the  action  of  the 
different  chemicals  in  that  cupboard  and  the  de- 
light with  which  at  last  he  discovered  the  potency 
of  the  modest  mercury. 

He  soon  found  that  an  exposed  plate  held  over 
a  dish  of  warm  mercury  developed  rapidly.  Fully 
as  important  was  the  discovery  —  which  Talbot, 
unknown  to  Daguerre,  had  already  made  with  re- 
gard to  impressions  on  paper  —  that  the  image 
could  be  fixed  by  immersion  in  a  solution  of  salt 
and  water,  which  cleared  off  the  iodide  of  sil- 
ver upon  which  light  had  not  acted. 

Isidore  Niepce  succeeded  his  father  in  the  part- 
nership with  Daguerre.  When  the  time  came  for 
an  announcement  of  the  discovery,  Daguerre  and 
Niepce  sought  to  form  a  commercial  company 
with  which  to  bring  the  invention  before  the  peo- 
ple.   A  subscription  was  opened  in  1838.  But 


TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  DAGUERRE.  33 


the  public  was  skeptical  about  the  discovery,  and 
it  may  well  have  seemed  to  Daguerre  that  after 
all  his  struggling  there  was  little  reward.  The 
idea  of  starting  a  company  had  to  be  entirely 
abandoned.  Daguerre  then  betook  himself  to  the 
astronomer  Arago. 

When  Arago  saw  Daguerre's  pictures  he  was 
amazed.  The  thing  upon  which  scientists  had 
wasted  so  much  speculation  was  at  last  a  reality 
and  appeared  before  his  eyes.  Daguerre's  writ- 
ten account  of  the  discovery  explained  the  process 
in  all  its  details. 

Arago  made  public  announcement  of  the  dis- 
covery. Daguerre  soon  found  himself  famous. 
The  vague  account  of  the  new  method  of  picture- 
making  excited  the  liveliest  curiosity.  The  Home 
Minister  in  the  French  Government  induced  the 
legislature  to  pass  a  bill  giving  Daguerre  a  life 
pension  of  6000  francs  a  year,  and  4000  francs 
a  year  to  Niepce,  that  the  discovery  might  be 
given  free  to  France  and  to  the  world.  Few 
governments  have  acted  with  such  prompt  gener- 
osity ;  for  though  the  pension  was  not  large,  its 
intention  and  effect  were  very  gratifying  to  Dar 
guerre. 

This  was  in  June.  On  August  10  an  immense 
crowd  rilled  the  hall  and  approaches  to  the  Aca- 
demy of  Science,  where  Arago  was  to  describe 
the  discovery.  Artists,  scientists,  and  a  scatter- 
ing of  public  men  of  many  professions  pressed 


34  TRIALS  AND  TRIUMPHS  OF  DAGUERRE. 

forward  to  hear  the  secret  of  the  camera's  image. 
After  fourteen  years  of  struggling  Daguerre  was 
a  hero.  In  his  enthusiasm  over  the  minute  per- 
fection of  the  camera's  drawing,  Paul  Delaroche 
exclaimed,  "  Painting  is  dead  from  this  day !  " 


CHAPTER  V. 

SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS. 

Paris  soon  became  much  excited  over  the 
"daguerreotype."  The  shop  of  Chevalier  was 
overrun  with  people  in  search  of  cameras  and 
outfits,  and  glistening  lenses  began  to  peer  from 
windows  and  roof  cornices  in  various  parts  of  the 
city. 

Most  people  had  a  much  exaggerated  idea  of 
what  Daguerre's  discoveries  meant.  They  looked 
to  see  the  colors  of  nature,  as  visible  in  the  mirror, 
impressed  upon  the  plate.  There  was  great  dis- 
appointment over  the  difficulty  of  securing  any 
image  at  all.  Daguerre's  formulas,  like  a  good 
many  other  formulas  which  have  since  appeared, 
seemed  simple  and  explicit  enough.  Few  realized 
without  experiment  what  nice  care  and  continued 
patience  were  required  to  secure  anything  like  a 
satisfactory  picture. 

I  shall  not  stop  to  give  any  particular  descrip- 
tion of  the  daguerreotype,  or  of  the  many  diffi- 
culties of  producing  it.  Nor  shall  I  undertake  to 
tell  the  reader  of  the  various  improvements  that 
Daguerre  and  others  succeeded  in  devising  for 


36  SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS. 


this  sort  of  picture-making.  Picture-making  on 
Daguerre's  plan  is  now  practically  obsolete,  and  I 
wish  in  this  preliminary  story  of  photography  to 
dwell  in  detail  only  on  those  matters  that  will 
help  the  photographic  beginner  of  to-day  to  un- 
derstand what  modern  photography  is  and  how  it 
came  to  be  what  it  is. 

With  all  the  improvements  upon  the  daguerre- 
otype that  were  made  in  Daguerre's  time, — many 
French  and  English  experimenters  helping  for- 
ward the  work,  —  the  dainty  picture  on  metal  re- 
mained very  imperfect. 

Up  to  this  time  no  one  had  taken  a  photo- 
graphic portrait.  Daguerre  himself,  a  scenic 
artist,  had  always  been  interested  in  the  repro- 
duction of  natural  scenery,  and  probably  had 
thought  very  little  about  portraiture.  However 
this  may  have  been,  it  is  a  fact  that  the  first 
daguerreotype  portraits  were  made  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic. 

Professor  Morse,  famous  as  the  inventor  of  the 
electric  telegraph,  was  in  Paris  at  the  time  Da- 
guerre's discovery  was  announced.  Morse  was 
then  bringing  his  own  inventions  before  the  world. 
Before  returning  to  the  United  States  he  became 
acquainted  with  Daguerre,  and  soon  resolved  to 
introduce  the  daguerreotype  in  this  country.  It 
so  happened  that  Professor  John  Draper  and 
Professor  Morse  made  the  first  camera  pictures 
of  the  human  face. 


SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS. 


37 


The  poor  sitter  of  1848  had  a  thrilling  experi- 
ence. His  face  was  powdered  that  it  might  be 
more  actinic  in  color,  and  the  sooner  impress 
itself  upon  the  plate.  Then  he  was  compelled  to 
sit  in  the  glare  of  the  sun  for  twenty  or  thirty 
minutes.  He  was  allowed  to  close  his  eyes,  but 
even  then  the  strain  of  a  fixed  position  and  the 
glare  of  the  sun  imposed  a  severe  strain  on  the 
victim  of  the  new  science.  Draper  ingeniously 
made  use  of  a  large  tank  filled  with  ammonio-sul- 
phate  of  copper,  through  which  blue  liquid  the 
sunlight  passed,  and  lost  in  the  passage  the  heat- 
ing rays  so  distressing  to  the  sitter. 

The  increased  sensitiveness  of  the  plate  under 
fresh  discoveries  soon  made  it  possible  to  shorten 
the  imprisonment  of  the  sitter's  head,  yet  even 
then  the  length  of  the  exposure  was  a  prolonged 
ordeal  in  comparison  with  the  modern  mode  of 
photography. 

A  French  writer,  speaking  of  the  early  days 
of  portraiture  in  Paris,  gives  this  picture  of  the 
operation :  "  The  model  took  a  graceful  attitude, 
resting  one  hand  on  the  back  of  a  chair,  looking 
as  amiable  as  possible.  But  the  sun  fell  full  in 
his  eyes !  The  operator  gives  the  final  warning 
to  keep  perfectly  still !  The  seconds  pass,  suc- 
ceed each  other,  and  seem  to  expand  into  centu- 
ries ;  the  sitter,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts,  is  over- 
powered by  the  solar  rays ;  his  eyelids  open  and 
close,  his  face  contracts,  the  immobility  to  which 


38 


SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS. 


he  is  constrained  becomes  a  torture.  His  fea- 
tures shrivel  up,  tears  fall  from  his  eyes,  perspi- 
ration beads  on  his  forehead,  he  pants  for  breath, 
his  entire  body  shakes  like  that  of  an  epileptic 
who  wishes  to  keep  still,  and  the  daguerreotype 
plate  represents  the  image  of  a  poor  wretch  un- 
dergoing all  the  tortures  of  the  ordeal  by  fire." 
A  sense  of  relief  comes  with  the  writer's  assur- 
ance that  "  shortly  afterward  the  discovery  of  the 
accelerating  substances  permitted  daguerreotype 
portraits  to  be  taken  with  something  of  artistic 
feeling." 

Daguerreotypes  became  more  popular  in  the 
United  States  than  in  any  other  country,  not 
excepting  France  itself,  and  many  an  old  family 
cabinet  reveals  portrait  treasures,  whose  delicate 
fidelity  to  life  may  well  inspire  a  grateful  ac- 
knowledgment to  Daguerre  and  his  ardent  fol- 
lowers. 

There  is  a  daguerreotypist  in  Nathaniel  Haw- 
)  thorne's  "  House  of  the  Seven  Gables."  In  one 
chapter  of  this  remarkable  romance  the  heroine 
makes  a  criticism  upon  daguerreotypes  which  we 
may  agree,  after  the  scene  described  by  the 
French  writer  I  have  quoted,  was  probably  not 
without  justification.  "I  don't  much  like  pic- 
tures of  that  sort,"  says  Phoebe,  "they  are  so 
hard  and  stern ;  besides  dodging  away  from  the 
eye  and  trying  to  escape  altogether.  They  are 
conscious  of  looking  very  unamiable,  I  suppose, 
and  therefore  hate  to  be  seen." 


SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS. 


39 


"If  you  would  permit  me,"  says  the  artist, 
looking  at  Phoebe,  "  I  would  like  to  try  whether 
the  daguerreotype  can  bring  out  disagreeable 
traits  on  a  perfectly  amiable  face.  But  there 
certainly  is  truth  in  what  you  have  said.  Most 
of  my  likenesses  do  look  unamiable ;  but  the  very 
sufficient  reason,  I  fancy,  is  because  the  originals 
are  so.  There  is  a  wonderful  insight  in  heaven's 
broad  and  simple  sunshine.  While  we  give  it 
credit  only  for  depicting  the  merest  surface,  it 
actually  brings  out  the  secret  character  with  a 
truth  that  no  painter  would  ever  venture  upon, 
even  could  he  detect  it.  There  is  at  least  no 
flattery  in  my  humble  line  of  art." 

Daguerre  died  in  July,  1851,  after  having 
rendered  a  great  service  to  the  world.  The  da- 
guerreotype, as  he  left  it,  was  not  destined  to  live 
much  longer  than  its  inventor. 

Beautiful  as  the  daguerreotype  picture  was  in 
many  ways,  it  had  a  serious  defect  beyond  any 
that  have  been  mentioned  —  it  did  not  permit  of 
duplication.  Made  on  a  copper  plate,  it  had  not 
the  transparency  which  would  have  made  sun- 
copying  possible.  This  was  the  great  deficiency 
in  the  daguerreotype  process.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  all  processes  that  have  worked  on  an 
untransparent  surface. 

Thus  photographers  have  worked  from  the  hint 
given  them  by  Talbot  rather  than  from  the  hints 
offered  by  Niepce  and  Daguerre,  notwithstanding 


40 


SEEKING  EASIEB  PATHS. 


the  great  value  of  the  chemical  discoveries  made 
by  the  two  Frenchmen. 

Talbot,  who  had  fixed  the  image  of  the  camera 
years  before  Daguerre's  discovery  was  announced, 
produced  a  translucent  negative  from  which  any 
number  of  duplicates  could  be  made.  In  this 
negative  the  lights  and  shadows  were  reversed,  so 
that  when  the  sun  passed  through  to  the  sensitive 
surface  beneath  &  positive  was  formed —  an  image 
following  the  lights  and  shadows  of  nature.  The 
positive  which  was  directly  produced  by  Daguerre's 
process  was  necessary  in  a  sun  image  which  was 
not  to  be  used  as  a  means  of  printing  but  was 
itself  the  print. 

Sun  pictures  became  so  popular  after  the  publi- 
cation of  Daguerre's  discoveries  that  Talbot  found 
every  inducement  to  follow  up  his  own  discoveries. 
Up  to  the  time  when  he  read  his  paper  before  the 
Royal  Society  this  British  worker  had  been  in 
ignorance  of  a  most  important  fact :  the  fact  that  a 
sufficient  impression  had  been  made  upon  his  sen- 
sitive paper  long  before  the  image  could  be  seen  ; 
in  other  words  that  light  soon  produced,  as  on 
Daguerre's  plate,  a  latent  though  invisible  image 
which  only  required  to  be  "  developed."  To  de- 
velop the  latent  image  Talbot  used  a  solution  of 
gallic  acid  and  nitrate  of  silver,  which  brought  the 
image  into  clear  relief.  This  discovery,  which  was 
in  the  line  of  Daguerre's  discovery  with  the  mer- 
cury, so  greatly  affected  the  time  required  to  pro- 


SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS,  41 


duce  an  impression,  that  photographs  which  had 
occupied  an  hour's  time  in  the  exposure  could  now 
be  made  within  thirty  seconds. 

The  value  of  the  gallic  acid  had  been  noticed 
by  others.  Wedgwood  discovered  that  salts  of  sil- 
ver darkened  more  rapidly  when  spread  on  leather, 
which  contained  acid  qualities  of  the  same  nature. 
Then  an  English  clergyman,  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Reade, 
made  some  beautiful  light  impressions  on  white 
kid  gloves.  The  story  goes  that  the  scientific 
value  of  the  experiment  was  scarcely  appreciated 
by  the  owner  of  the  gloves,  who  was  Mr.  Reade's 
wife;  and  the  property  contained  in  the  gloves 
being  due  to  the  nutgall  used  in  tanning,  the  dis- 
coverer found  it  desirable  to  use  the  gallic  element 
on  other  surfaces,  and  was  successful. 

Talbot  was  much  delighted  to  find  that  he  could 
make  leaf  impressions  on  his  calotype  paper  even 
in  moonlight.  The  calotype  prints  were  used  as 
negatives  in  printing  on  the  ordinary  photogenic 
paper  which  Talbot  had  first  invented. 

One  of  the  immediate  results  of  Talbot's  new 
process  was  the  making  of  portraits  upon  paper 
sensitized  on  the  calotype  principle.  Some  of 
these  portraits,  made  before  the  daguerreotype 
had  been  successfully  adapted  to  portraiture  in 
England,  were  sent  over  to  Paris  and  seem  to 
have  been  much  admired  in  that  city.  Talbot 
himself  went  to  Paris  in  1843.    Large  audiences 


42 


SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS. 


heard  him  describe  his  method  of  making  pictures 
on  paper,  and  of  copying  them  by  the  aid  of  sun- 
light. A  year  later  Talbot  began  publishing  a 
book  called  "  The  Pencil  of  Nature,"  in  whose  six 
parts  numerous  photographic  illustrations  were 
published.  These  illustrations  are  now  much 
faded.  Talbot  had  not  yet  learned,  what  every 
photographer  is  now  taught,  that  all  traces  of  the 
"  hypo  "  (which  he  adopted  for  fixing)  must  be 
thoroughly  washed  out  before  the  print  is  dried. 

By  making  use  of  the  bromine  introduced  by 
Goddard,  Talbot's  process  was  further  improved, 
and  in  1851  the  industrious  inventor  introduced 
an  instantaneous  method,  which  he  illustrated  at 
the  Royal  Institute  by  photographing  a  piece  of  a 
newspaper  fastened  on  a  rapidly  revolving  disk  in 
a  single  flash  of  light  from  an  electric  battery. 
In  the  resulting  negative  every  letter  is  said  to 
have  been  clearly  defined.  If  this  experiment  is 
correctly  reported,  no  more  remarkable  feat  has 
ever  been  accomplished. 

Had  photography  gone  no  further  than  Da- 
guerre  carried  it,  had  it  never  become  more  exact 
>  and  delicate  than  one  of  Talbot's  calotypes,  it 
might  still  have  been  a  very  useful  science,  and 
the  world  would  have  found  thousands  of  ways  of 
using  and  delighting  in  its  products.  Yet  it  was 
at  this  stage  imperfect  in  many  respects,  and 
much  restricted  in  its  usefulness  as  well  as  in  its 
beauties. 


SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS.  43 


The  defects  of  Daguerre's  process  have  already 
been  mentioned.  Talbot's  negatives,  being  made 
on  paper,  were  subject  to  all  the  blemishes  that  ex- 
isted in  paper  manufactured  at  that  time.  Then 
paper  was  much  more  difficult  to  handle,  both  in 
the  camera  holder  and  in  the  developing,  than 
a  piece  of  metal.  Another  difficulty  arose  from 
the  fact  that  the  positive  print,  having  to  be 
made  by  means  of  the  sunlight's  passage  through 
the  negative,  the  paper  on  which  the  negative  was 
formed  must  not  be  thick.  At  best,  the  paper 
had  so  little  translucency  that  printing  was  a 
slow  process.  Some  French  experimenters  were 
shrewd  enough  to  wax  the  paper,  and  thus  render 
it  much  more  favorable  to  the  passage  of  light. 

Although  the  first  portraits  in  England  were 
made  on  Talbot's  paper  negatives,  daguerreotypes 
became  most  popular  for  portraiture  after  a  time. 
The  daguerreotype  certainly  gave  a  very  delicate 
and  nicely  modeled  image.  For  other  purposes, 
however,  Talbot's  process  was  more  satisfactory, 
and  amateurs,  whose  enthusiasm  over  photography 
led  them  into  various  kinds  of  artistic  adventure, 
liked  the  paper  print  better  than  the  positive  on 
metal.  The  paper  print,  without  a  brilliant  and 
distressing  gloss,  was  always  more  admirable  to 
the  artist.  And  so  the  two  forms  of  photography 
each  had  admirers. 

Meanwhile,  everybody  who  recognized  the  im- 
portance of  photography,  who  realized  what  it 


44  SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS. 


might  do  and  what  it  had  already  begun  to  do 
for  art  and  science,  was  on  the  alert  for  better 
methods  of  producing  the  photographic  image. 

Sir  John  Herschel,  who  had  given  a  valuable 
hint  about  the  use  of  hyposulphite  of  soda  in 
"  fixing,"  came  forward  with  the  suggestion  that 
the  sensitive  salts  of  silver  should  be  placed  upon 
glass  instead  of  upon  paper.  The  advantage  of 
transparent  glass  over  half -transparent  paper  was 
seen  at  once,  but  for  some  time  no  successful  pic- 
tures were  made  upon  glass. 

Herschel  put  a  glass  plate  at  the  bottom  of  a 
dish  containing  chloride  of  silver  in  water.  After 
the  silver  salt  had  settled  evenly  on  the  surface 
of  the  plate  the  liquid  was  siphoned  off  and  the 
plate  dried.  But  only  a  faint  image  could  be  pro- 
duced on  a  plate  prepared  in  this  way. 

No  one  then  fully  understood  that  the  silver 
solution  will  not  darken  on  its  own  account.  It 
must  be  in  contact  with  some  foreign  matter.  The 
photographer  sets  his  glass  jar  of  nitrate  of  silver 
in  the  sun  to  "  clear  "  the  liquid.  If  the  liquid 
could  be  darkened  by  light  when  free  from  con- 
tact with  foreign  substances,  the  contents  of  the 
jar  would  soon  darken.  But  let  the  operator  in 
pouring  the  liquid  from  one  dish  to  another  get  a 
spattering  upon  his  nose !  Into  what  a  beautiful 
*  brown  will  the  sun  turn  those  tenacious  stains ! 

A  Frenchman  took  the  glass  plate  and  solved 
the  problem  by  coating  the  glass  with  albumen 


SEEKING  EASIER  PATHS.  45 


before  putting  on  the  nitrate  of  silver.  The  ori- 
ginator of  this  important  improvement  upon  the 
suggestion  of  the  ingenious  Herschel  was  Niepce 
de  St.  Victor,  a  nephew  of  Nicephore  de  Niepce. 
Beating  up  white  of  egg  with  iodide  of  potassium, 
bromide  of  potassium  and  common  salt,  St.  Victor 
poured  the  mixture  on  a  plate  of  glass,  thus  form- 
ing a  fine  film.  When  the  dried  plate  was  dipped 
in  nitrate  of  silver,  iodide  and  bromide  of  silver 
were  formed  in  the  albumen.  To  develop  the 
plate  after  exposure,  gallic  acid  was  used.  St. 
Victor  did  not  succeed  so  well  with  this  process  as 
did  two  other  Frenchmen,  Blanquart  Evard  and 
Le  Gray,  who  acted  upon  his  suggestion. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  WET  PLATE. 

Photogkaphy  took  one  of  its  greatest  leaps 
when  Frederick  Scott- Archer,  an  English  sculptor, 
introduced  what  is  called  the  "  collodion  process." 

Several  important  discoveries  had  led  up  to  this 
remarkable  invention  by  Scott  -  Archer.  In  the 
first  place  the  distinguished  Swiss  chemist  Schon- 
hein  (in  1846),  by  soaking  ordinary  cotton  in  a 
mixture  of  nitric  and  sulphuric  acids,  produced  the 
explosive  substance  insoluble  pyroxyline,  which 
soon  received  the  name  of  gun-cotton.  With  less 
of  the  acids  a  soluble  pyroxyline  was  produced. 

At  this  stage  an  American,  Maynard  of  Boston, 
appeared  with  a  discovery  of  the  highest  interest. 
Maynard  found  that  when  pyroxyline  was  dissolved 
in  ether  and  alcohol  a  creamy  liquid  of  singular 
qualities  was  produced.  To  this  liquid  Maynard 
gave  the  name  of  collodion.  The  great  value  of 
collodion  lay  in  this,  —  that  when  it  was  poured 
upon  a  piece  of  glass  the  evaporation  of  the  liquid 
left  a  strong  skin  upon  the  surface. 

Maynard  was  not  thinking  of  photography 
when  he  made  his  experiments  with  collodion. 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


47 


Indeed,  the  surgeons  had  used  it  for  covering  skin 
bruises  and  lacerations  before  the  photographers 
thought  of  adopting  it  as  a  basis  for  their  silver. 
It  was  Le  Gray,  who  had  waxed  the  calotype  paper 
and  improved- the  albumen  process  of  St.  Victor, 
who  suggested  that  collodion  might  be  useful  in 
coating  the  photographic  plate.  Other  experi- 
menters agreed  with  Le  Gray,  and  many  of  them 
tried  it ;  but  the  first  to  actually  practice  collodion 
photography  and  bring  it  to  perfection  was  Scott- 
Archer. 

Scott- Archer  had  been  drawn  into  photographic 
experiment  by  his  wish  to  secure  photographic 
copies  of  his  sculptured  work,  and  it  was  while  he 
was  busy  in  his  first  attempts  that  Maynard  dis- 
covered collodion. 

Here  is  a  brief  outline  of  this  first  collodion 
process  as  the  inventor  himself  described  it: 
Immerse  eighty  grains  of  cotton-wool  in  a  mix- 
ture of  one  ounce  each  of  nitric  and  sulphuric 
acids;  take  out  after  fifteen  seconds  and  wash 
thoroughly  in  running  water  ;  dissolve  the  pyroxy- 
line  so  obtained  in  a  mixture  of  equal  parts  of 
sulphuric  ether  and  absolute  alcohol.  The  solu- 
tion so  obtained  is  ordinary  collodion.  Add  some 
soluble  iodide  —  usually  iodide  of  potassium  —  to 
the  collodion.  A  little  potassium  bromide  may 
also  be  added.  Pour  the  iodized  collodion  on  a 
perfectly  clean  glass  plate,  and  allow  two  or  three 
minutes  for  the  film  to  set.    Take  the  coated 


48 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


plate  into  the  dark  room  and  immerse  it  in  a  bath 
of  silver  nitrate  (thirty  grains  to  every  ounce  of 
water)  for  about  a  minute.  Here  a  chemical 
action  takes  place  by  which  silver  iodide  is  formed 
in  the  pores  of  the  collodion.  Remove  the  plate, 
which  is  now  sensitive  to  white  light,  place  it  in  a 
holder,  and  expose  it  in  the  camera. 

The  development  is  accomplished  by  pouring  on 
a  mixture  of  water,  one  ounce ;  acetic  acid,  one 
dram ;  pyrogallol,  three  grains.  The  fixing  was 
first  in  the  hyposulphite  of  soda.  The  cyanide 
of  potassium  afterward  used  is  an  exceedingly 
dangerous  poison. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  announcement  of 
Scott-Archer's  collodion  method  caused  a  great 
stir.  The  character  of  the  image  produced  on  the 
collodion  -  coated  plate  was  more  beautiful  than 
anything  yet  effected  in  any  negative  -  making 
process.  As  delicate  as  the  finest  daguerreotype 
image,  the  collodion  negative  gave  opportunity 
for  any  number  of  positive  prints,  and  the  clear- 
ness of  those  parts  of  the  plate  representing  the 
shadow  of  the  picture  made  it  possible  to  print 
with  great  rapidity.  In  a  short  time  the  collodion 
plate  of  Scott- Archer  had  banished  the  calotype 
of  Talbot  and  its  great  rival,  the  metal  plate  of 
Daguerre. 

With  the  success  of  the  collodion  process  ama- 
teur photography  fairly  began.  From  the  earliest 
days  of  photography  there  had  been  experimenters 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


49 


who  practiced  picture  -  making  for  love  of  the 
work  itself,  and  with  no  idea  of  commercial  inter- 
ests; but  the  number  was  small  in  comparison 
with  the  army  of  enthusiasts  that  found  a  fascina- 
tion in  the  "  wet-plate  "  process. 

The  word  64  amateur  "  is  often  very  confusing. 
It  is  well  understood  that  the  word,  derived  from 
the  Latin  amator,  lover,  is  meant  to  designate 
a  person  who  follows  any  pursuit  for  love  of 
it,  as  distinguished  from  a  person  who  makes 
the  pursuit  his  means  of  livelihood.  Everybody 
understands  the  meaning  of  "  professional "  or 
"  mercantile  "  as  applied  to  a  photographer  who 
has  a  public  gallery  and  business  quarters,  and  of 
"  amateur 99  as  applied  to  photographers  whose 
interest  in  picture-making  is  merely  incidental, 
for  personal  amusement.  But  when  we  come  to 
speak  of  a  great  photographic  investigator  who 
gives  much  thought  to  the  study  of  the  science,  and 
yet  does  not  make  pictures  for  a  living,  we  become 
conscious  of  something  awkward,  of  something 
not  quite  right  in  the  word  "  amateur." 

Yet  it  will  not  do  to  say  that  the  word  "  ama- 
teur 99  means  a  mere  dabbler.  There  is  no  reason 
why  a  person  who  follows  photography  for  the 
love  of  it  should  not  acquire  as  much  knowledge 
of  the  science  as  a  person  who  practices  it  for 
purely  mercantile  reasons.  In  fact,  as  we  have 
seen  and  shall  see  further  on,  the  photographers 
who  have  made  a  trade  of  photograph  -  making 


50 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


have  seldom  been  the  photographers  who  have 
made  the  great  discoveries  and  inventions.  In 
this  respect  photography  is  perhaps  different  from 
many  other  sciences  and  many  other  arts ;  and 
so,  in  spite  of  the  dissatisfaction  we  are  sometimes 
forced  to  feel  over  the  word  "  amateur,"  we  shall 
be  obliged,  until  some  one  invents  better  terms, 
to  speak  of  amateur  and  professional  in  distin- 
guishing between  the  two  classes  of  workers. 

The  early  amateurs  who  undertook  photogra- 
phy by  the  wet-plate  process  had  to  face  labors 
and  disappointments  over  which  the  modern  ama- 
teur would  become  very  impatient,  if  he  were  not 
frightened  off  altogether.  The  apparatus  required 
for  photographing  out  of  doors  was,  from  the  mod- 
ern point  of  view,  in  the  best  of  cases  very  clumsy. 
Collodion,  silver  bath,  and  developer  had  to  be 
carried  to  the  spot,  or  very  close  to  the  spot, 
where  the  picture  was  to  be  taken,  for  an  ex- 
posure must  be  made  before  the  silver  coating  of 
the  plate  advanced  too  far  toward  drying.  Yet 
the  enthusiasts  traveled  miles  with  their  outfits, 
sometimes  carrying  tanks  of  water  into  moun- 
tain heights  where  water  was  not  likely  to  be 
found. 

A  friend  has  described  to  me  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  once  saw  a  photographer  in  a 
western  town  photograph  the  interior  of  a  church. 
The  church  was  several  streets  away  from  the 
gallery,  but  the  photographer,  who  was  an  elderly 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


51 


man,  and  anything  but  nimble,  undertook  to 
carry  his  prepared  plate  from  the  gallery  to  his 
camera  rather  than  go  to  the  trouble  of  carrying 
or  setting  up  the  necessary  apparatus  in  or  near 
the  church.  The  camera  was  duly  focused,  and 
the  old  photographer,  after  silvering  the  plate 
in  his  gallery  "  dark-room,"  started  for  the  church 
on  a  gentle  trot,  which  increased  in  energy  as 
the  fear  of  being  a  trifle  late  seized  upon  the 
operator.  The  picture  of  the  old  man,  nervously 
running  with  the  plate-holder  under  his  arm, 
and  of  his  running  back  again  after  the  expo- 
sure, was  indelibly  photographed  on  my  friend's 
memory ;  and  after  enjoying  the  novelty  of  the 
sight,  the  spectator  was  glad  that  the  hurried 
plate,  as  he  afterward  learned,  performed  its  work 
successfully. 

The  fact  that  photography  became  so  popular 
after  the  introduction  of  the  collodion  process  nat- 
urally increased  the  zeal  of  the  experimenters.  The 
process  was  more  satisfactory  than  any  that  had 
gone  before  it :  it  produced  a  delicate  and  perfect 
image,  and  permitted  unlimited  copying  ;  and  it  is 
still  practiced,  —  a  photographic  method  of  very 
great  usefulness.  But  there  were  many  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  good  work,  many  difficulties  and  an- 
noyances, especially  to  the  amateur  who  worked 
with  insufficient  room  and  materials.  The  collo- 
dion was  found  to  be  difficult  to  prepare  and  disa- 
greeable in  odor.   The  preparation  and  coating  of 


52 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


the  glass  plates  had  to  be  done  with  the  greatest 
nicety.  The  silver  bath  was  so  fitful  and  change- 
able, and  altogether  so  erratic  in  its  conduct,  that 
people  who  were  superstitious  on  no  other  subject 
came  to  believe  that  there  was  some  bewitchment 
in  the  solution.  All  this  was  very  "  mussy,"  and 
black  finger-stains  from  the  silver  made  it  diffi- 
cult for  amateur  or  professional  to  avoid  advertis- 
ing his  habits. 

One  of  the  first  experiments  with  the  collodion 
process  was  the  changing  of  the  negative  into  a 
positive  without  printing.  This  was  done  by 
whitening  the  silver  deposit  on  the  plate,  and 
backing  up  the  glass  with  a  piece  of  dark  velvet 
or  a  coat  of  black  varnish.  Almost  every  old 
family  cabinet  contains  examples  of  portraits  made 
in  this  way.  They  somewhat  resemble  daguerre- 
otypes, though  made  in  so  different  a  manner. 

Another  kind  of  wet-plate  positive  was  invented 
in  the  United  States  —  a  natural  image  on  a  sur- 
face of  japanned  iron.  These  have  been  known 
as  ferrotypes,  but  the  familiar,  if  inaccurate, 
name  is  "  tintypes."  They  have  had  a  remarkable 
popularity.  The  "  tintype  "  wagon  has  traveled 
through  many  lands,  though  most  frequently  seen 
in  our  own.  The  sitting,  the  developing,  and  the 
mounting  (generally  in  a  paper  frame)  all  oc- 
cupy but  a  few  minutes,  and  the  product  is  so 
cheap  that  the  poorest  of  people  are  able  to  own 
family  portraits.  Ferrotypes  are  still  made  by  the 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


53 


thousand  at  the  city  galleries,  at  the  seaside,  at 
the  country  fairs,  and  in  the  village  through  which 
the  itinerant  photographer  makes  his  summer 
journeys.  The  young  man  with  a  loud  voice,  who 
stands  at  the  door  "drumming"  trade  with  a 
handful  of  samples,  is  a  familiar  American  "  type." 

For  years  the  ferrotype  remained  a  form  of  wet- 
plate  photography.  Recently  the  amateur  has 
been  interested  in  taking  up  the  "  dry  "  ferrotype 
process.  With  prepared  plates  and  a  simple 
method  of  development,  dainty  little  pictures  are 
quickly  finished. 

But  positive  processes  of  this  kind  —  processes 
in  which  the  camera  is  made  to  form  the  final 
image  instead  of  a  negative  image,  from  which  cop- 
ies are  made  —  have  never  had  the  artistic  relief 
of  the  printing  processes ;  and  they  have  always 
had,  and  must  always  have,  the  disadvantage  of 
presenting  a  reversed  image,  —  everything  is 
turned  wrong  side  about,  which  does  not  make 
much  difference  in  some  cases,  but  makes  a  great 
deal  of  difference  in  others. 

The  special  drawback  of  the  collodion  process 
being  the  necessity  of  using  the  plate  soon  after  it 
was  dipped  in  the  silver,  experimenters  for  a  long 
time  sought  to  overcome  this  difficulty  by  prepar- 
ing a  plate  that  might  be  used  with  equal  success 
after  it  had  dried.  A  "  moist  process  "  published 
in  1854  gave  a  method  of  keeping  the  surface  of 
a  plate  damp,  and  preventing  the  crystallization 


54 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


of  the  silver  for  a  number  of  days.  After  being 
prepared  in  the  usual  way,  the  plate  was  immersed 
in  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  zinc  and  nitrate  of 
silver  and  then  drained.  Another  experimenter 
tried  a  solution  of  honey  to  coat  the  sensitized 
plate.  This  was  called  the  "  honey  process." 
Various  other  methods,  like  that  of  submerging 
the  plates  in  water  till  wanted  for  use,  were  tried 
from  time  to  time,  but  there  seemed  to  be  no  com- 
fortable way  of  avoiding  the  difficulties  of  the  wet 
plate  without  making  plates  that  were  altogether 
dry. 

A  French  scientist,  Dr.  Taupenot,  introduced 
one  of  the  first  dry-plate  processes.  Dr.  Taupe- 
not sensitized  the  plate  in  the  ordinary  manner ; 
washed  it,  flowed  it  with  albumen,  dried  it,  dipped 
it  again  in  a  silver  bath  acidified  with  acetic 
acid,  washed  it  and  dried  it  again,  after  which  it 
remained  ready  for  use  for  weeks  and  months. 
But  this  was  a  complicated  method,  even  after  it 
had  been  somewhat  modified. 

To  keep  the  silver  from  crystallizing  in  the  pro- 
cess of  drying,  a  curious  variety  of  measures  was 
tried.  Among  the  "  preservatives,"  as  the  dif- 
ferent substances  used  in  protecting  the  silver  from 
the  action  of  the  atmosphere  were  called,  were 
sugar,  syrup,  vinegar,  gum  arabic,  beer,  malt,  tea, 
morphine,  and  tobacco.  Nearly  all  of  these  ingre- 
dients, however  they  might  accomplish  their  main 
purpose,  made  the  plate  slower  in  action. 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


55 


It  frequently  had  occurred  to  experimenters  that 
instead  of  adding  the  silver  to  the  coating  of  the 
plate,  the  silver  might  be  made  a  part  of  the  coat- 
ing. After  a  time  much  experiment  was  turned 
in  the  direction  of  mixing  together  the  silver  and 
the  coating,  thus  making  an  "  emulsion." 

Here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  good  theories 
were  put  forward  by  men  who  were  not  able  to 
carry  out  the  schemes  or  able  to  instruct  others  in 
a  successful  method  of  doing  so.  Thus  a  London 
photographer  named  Bellini  said  he  had  found  a 
process  for  coating  glass  with  a  solution  of  shellac 
containing  iodide,  bromide  and  lactate  of  silver. 
"  All  that  is  necessary,"  he  said,  "  is  to  coat  the 
plate  with  this  preparation  and  expose  it  in  the 
camera."  But  it  was  found  that  in  spite  of  the  as- 
surance so  confidently  offered  something  else  was 
necessary. 

Much  more  valuable  than  any  suggestions  that 
had  yet  been  made  were  those  offered  by  two 
Liverpool  men,  J.  B.  Tayce  and  W.  B.  Bolton, 
who  added  bromide  of  silver  to  the  collodion,  and 
flowed  the  parts  with  tannin  before  the  drying. 

A  prominent  American  experimenter,  Carey 
Lea  of  Philadelphia,  added  a  few  drops  of  aqua 
regia  to  the  emulsion,  and  step  by  step  the  prob- 
lem of  the  dry  plate  was  solved.  Bolton,  for  in- 
stance, washed  the  emulsion  before  coating  the 
glass,  by  causing  the  evaporation  of  the  ether  and 
alcohol  in  a  shallow  dish,  cutting  up  the  matter 


56 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


remaining,  and  washing  out  all  the  soluble  salts, 
redissolving  with  alcohol  and  ether,  and  thus 
producing  an  emulsion  ready  at  any  time  to  be 
used  in  coating  plates.  All  of  these  processes  re- 
ceived the  paradoxical  name  of  "  dry  wet-plate  " 
processes,  and  Bolton's  method  is  still  used  for 
some  of  the  finest  forms  of  photographic  work. 

In  time  gelatine  began  to  succeed  collodion  as 
a  substance  for  retaining  the  silver  salts  on  the 
plate.  This  was  another  of  the  long  steps  for- 
ward. 

Gelatine  is  an  animal  substance  of  much  useful- 
ness. It  is  often  obtained  from  the  hoofs  and 
horns  of  oxen,  from  bones,  etc.  It  dissolves  in 
hot  water,  and  in  cooling  forms  a  jelly.  In  a  pure 
state  it  is  colorless  and  transparent.  Glue  gives 
gelatine  in  an  impure  form.  For  various  reasons 
it  is  of  great  value  as  a  substance  in  which  silver 
may  be  held. 

A  Belgian  chemist,  Stas,  showed  the  value  of 
heat  in  increasing  the  after-sensitiveness  of  emul- 
sion ;  but  it  was  not  until  1878,  four  years  after 
the  chemist's  announcement,  that  a  great  stir 
was  made  in  the  photographic  world  by  the  an- 
nouncement in  London  of  Bennett's  success  in 
"  stewing"  the  sensitive  compound. 

Bennett's  discovery  was  that  emulsion,  kept  in 
a  bottle  which  was  placed  in  hot  water,  increased 
in  sensitiveness  in  proportion  to  the  length  of 
time  it  was  allowed  to  cook.    The  emulsion  was 


THE  WET  PLATE. 


57 


kept  in  this  hot-water  bath  for  from  two  to  seven 
days,  after  which  it  was  carefully  washed,  flowed 
with  equal  care  upon  plates  accurately  leveled, 
and  then  dried  —  all  this,  of  course,  away  from 
white  light. 

Bennett's  triumph  was  followed  by  other  tri- 
umphs, with  the  result  that  the  same  sensitiveness 
produced  in  the  emulsion  by  long  cooking  was 
effected  by  boiling  for  a  short  time  at  a  high 
temperature.  Captain  Abney,  Dr.  von  Monck- 
hoven  and  other  investigators  made  ingenious  ad- 
vance in  discovery  and  invention  ;  and  the  highly 
sensitive  dry  plate,  so  long  looked  for,  was  a  real- 
ized fact. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE  CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

We  cannot  yet  call  any  photography  ancient  or 
even  mediaeval.  What  is  half  a  century  in  the 
progress  of  science  ?  But  we  may  call  modern 
that  description  of  photography  which  has  been 
practiced  since  the  introduction  of  the  dry  plate. 

Amateur  photography,  which  had  been  widely 
practiced  in  the  "  wet-plate  "  days,  became  after 
1880  a  universal  hobby.  With  plates  that  received 
an  impression,  even  in  a  poor  light,  in  a  fraction 
of  a  second,  that  might  be  kept  for  months  before 
exposure,  and  for  months  again  before  develop- 
ment, nothing  seemed  easier  than  photography. 
The  "  easiness  "  was  an  illusion  ;  but  photography 
flourished,  was  carried  into  thousands  of  homes, 
and  the  fraternity  of  enthusiastic  students  grows 
larger  every  year.  The  census  tables  show  some 
curious  figures  in  the  growth  of  photography  as 
a  trade,  but  it  might  be  truly  surprising  could 
some  census  reveal  the  increase  in  the  number 
of  amateur  photographers  between  1883  and 
1893. 

When  photography  began  to  be  domesticated  in 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY.  59 


this  way,  much  attention  was  directed  toward  new 
and  better  forms  of  camera.  Niepce  had  begun 
with  a  cigar  box.  From  this  small  beginning  the 
camera  grew  into  a  complex  instrument.  This 
growth  was  regulated,  not  merely  by  the  size  of 
the  plate  and  the  field  of  operations,  but  also  and 
especially  by  the  power  of  the  lens.  And  this 
brings  us  to  that  highly  important  feature  of  pho- 
tographic operation,  not  yet  touched  upon  here, 
that  first  and  foremost  object  of  mechanical  inter- 
est —  the  lens  itself. 

THE  LENS. 

It  will  be  interesting,  before  looking  at  the  dif- 
ferent lenses  which  ingenious  men  have  invented, 
to  think  for  a  moment  of  those  remarkable  lenses 
which  have  been  given  us  by  nature  —  the  lenses 
in  our  eyes. 

The  eye  is,  indeed,  a  complete  little  camera.  It 
has  its  lens,  its  dark  chamber,  its  focusing  mech- 
anism, yes,  and  its  sensitive  plate.  The  accom- 
panying sketch  will  suggest  how  much  a  camera  is 
like  the  eye.  The  curved  transparent  membrane 
called  the  cornea  is  marked  c  c.  Behind  this  is 
the  fluid  called  aqueous  humor,  marked  a  a. 
After  passing  through  these,  the  rays  of  light 
strike  the  lens  Z,  which  is  protected  by  the  ring  of 
the  iris  indicated  as  i  i.  The  iris  surrounds  the  cen- 
tral dark  spot  of  the  eye.  This  dark  spot  is  thus 
really  a  hole  which  is  larger  or  smaller  as  the  iris 


60    CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

expands  or  contracts.  When  there  is  much  light 
the  iris  contracts.    When  there  is  less  it  expands 


The  Camera  of  the  Human  Eye. 


again  and  is  relaxed  in  the  dark.  The  iris  acts 
precisely  as  the  "  stop  "  or  diaphragm  is  made  to 
act  in  a  camera.  The  ciliary  muscles,  marked  cm 
cm,  focus  the  eye  for  seeing  at  a  long  or  a  short 
distance.  Passing  through  the  lens,  the  rays  of 
light  are  directed  through  the  vitreous  humor 
(v      to  the  sensitive  retina  at  r  r. 

The  great  naturalist  Darwin  once  said  that  in 
considering  the  development  of  different  species 
from  the  lowest  forms  of  life  nothing  was  more  dif- 
ficult to  explain  than  the  eye.  The  organ  of  sight 
is,  we  are  all  willing  to  admit,  a  wonderful  thing, 
and  yet  we  shall  have  to  grumble  at  it  a  little, 
for  it  is,  mechanically  considered,  far  from  perfect, 
in  the  best  of  us.  At  the  very  beginning  it  is  a 
little  distressing  to  learn  that  the  human  eye  is 
in  many  respects  a  less  perfect  machine  than  the 
eye  of  many  of  the  brutes. 

All  eyes,  however,  have  certain  defects.  One  of 
these  defects  is  called  astigmatism,  and  is  caused 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY.  61 


by  the  fact  that  the  horizontal  and  the  vertical  cur- 
vatures of  the  ball  do  not  always  come  into  focus  at 
the  same  time,  for  the  reason  that  the  curvatures 
are  not  precisely  the  same  in  every  case.  In  fact, 
very  few  eyes  are  without  some  astigmatism. 
What  astigmatism  means,  will  be  indicated  by 
the  study  of  this  diagram  (Fig.  4). 

Show  these  lines  to  half  a  dozen  persons,  and 
ask  each  whether  all  the  spaces  seem  of  the  same 


Fig.  4. 

width,  and  all  the  lines  equally  defined.  To  many 
people  (unless  they  are  wearing  spectacles  devised 
to  correct  the  error  of  sight),  the  vertical  lines  of 
one  position  will  seem  wider  apart  than  the  lines 
running  horizontally.  Others  again  will  find  the 
horizontal  lines  wider  apart  and  more  distinct. 
But  by  turning  the  page  the  special  distinctness 
will,  to  a  person  whose  eyes  are  affected  by  astig- 
matism, seem  to  move  from  one  set  of  lines  to 
another,  showing  that  the  eye  is  deceived. 

This  one  defect  of  the  eye  is  accompanied  by 


62    CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

others  more  or  less  pronounced  in  different  peo- 
ple, and  entirely  aside  from  the  "  far "  and 
"  near  "  sighted  defects. 

At  the  same  time,  while  a  lens  carefully  made, 
of  good  glass,  is  clearer  and  more  accurate  than 
the  eye  in  its  report  of  things  reflected  upon  it, 
we  have  a  right  to  expect  of  a  lens  that  it  shall 
report  objects  in  such  a  way  that  the  result  may 
resemble  images  as  the  eye  sees  them.  But  we 
cannot  get  a  perfect  resemblance  of  images  as  the 
eyes  see  them  until  we  use  two  lenses  correspond- 
ing to  our  two  eyes.  One  lens  will  show  us  an  ob- 
ject only  as  one  eye  will  see  it.  Two  lenses  side 
by  side  are  used  to  give  that  effect  of  "  looking 
around  the  corner  "  of  things  which  is  produced 
by  our  having  two  eyes,  each,  in  a  way,  having  an 
independent  point  of  view.  Everybody  who  has 
looked  at  stereoscopic  pictures  through  the  little 
instrument  called  the  stereoscope,  will  realize  the 
difference  brought  about  by  the  use  of  two 
lenses. 

The  story  goes  that  the  children  of  a  Dutch 
spectacle  -  maker,  playing  with  lenses  in  their 
father's  work-room,  accidentally  discovered  the 
principle  of  the  telescope  by  looking  through 
two  disks  at  a  distant  object.  The  simple  princi- 
ple used  in  the  early  telescopes  was  gradually  ex- 
panded and  developed.  After  photography  came, 
lens-making  naturally  excited  a  great  deal  of  in- 
terest, and  remarkable  improvements  were  made. 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY.  63 

The  various  forms  of  single  lenses  are  shown 
in  this  diagram :  — 


t  %  3  4  $  C 


Fig.  5. 


These  forms  receive  the  following  names, — 
1,  double  convex ;  2,  plano-convex ;  3,  concavo- 
convex  ;  4,  double  concave ;  5,  plano-concave ; 
6,  meniscus. 

Beginning  with  these  primary  forms,  lenses  are 
made  up  into  complicated  combinations,  each  com- 
bination having  definite  qualities.  In  order  to 
understand  why  these  groupings  become  neces- 
sary, let  us  examine  the  action  of  a  simple  convex 
lens.    (Fig.  6.) 

Taking  the  lines  A,  B,  C,  D,  and  E  to  repre- 
sent parallel  rays  of  light  striking  the  lens  LL, 
we  discover  that  the  outer  rays  A-C  do  not  focus 
with  B,  and  that  the  rays  D  and  E,  between  the 
outer  and  the  inner  rays,  focus  with  neither  A 
and  C  nor  with  B.  The  deflected  rays  form 
two  focal  points  (EE).  In  case  the  rays  D  and 
E  entered  the  lens  at  an  angle  such  as  is  repre- 
sented in  Fig.  7,  the  confusion  of  focus  would 


64    CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 


increase.  This  defect  in  the  single  lens  is  called 
spherical  aberration.    The  defect  is  very  largely 


i 

: 

1  ° 

i  b 

J 
i 

i  ! 

I  E 

I  C 

r  r  l 


Fig.  6. 

overcome  by  the  use  of  a  diaphragm  or  disk, 
which  is  placed  in  front  of  the  lens  and  which 
admits  rays  only  at  points  nearer  the  centre  of 
the  lens.    Another  kind  of  aberration  interferes 


with  the  perfect  action  of  this  species  of  lens. 
This  is  called  chromatic  aberration,  and  is  pro- 
duced by  the  fact  that  the  visual  and  chemical 
rays  —  of  which  I  have  spoken  in  the  comments 
on  light  —  do  not  coincide. 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY.  65 


To  completely  correct  these  two  kinds  of 
aberration  lenses  require  "correction"  by  the 
combining  of  different  forms  of  glass  and  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  glass.  Lenses  are  made  of  two 
kinds  of  glass  —  crown  glass  and  flint  glass. 
When  the  two  kinds  of  glass  are  combined,  one 
corrects  the  chromatic  aberrations  of  the  other ; 
and  by  the  combination  of  concave  and  convex 
forms  in  lenses,  the  spherical  aberrations  are, 
so  far  as  possible,  accurately  corrected. 

These  principles  have  been  worked  out  with 
great  ingenuity,  and  step  by  step,  until  the  mod- 
ern lens  sometimes  becomes  a  complicated  mech- 
anism with  many  layers  of  glass.  For  instance, 
the  plano-concave  was  added  to  the  double  convex 


so  as  to  produce  a  lens  like  a  in  Fig.  8.  Then 
the  plano-concave  was  placed  in  front,  so  that  the 
flat  surface  received  the  rays  of  light.  And  still 
better  definition  was  afterward  secured  by  pla- 


Fig.  8. 


Arrows  show  direction  of  light  rays  entering  lens. 


66    CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 


cing  the  double  concave  in  front  of  the  double 
convex,  as  in  c.  The  lenses  thus  united  became 
practically  one  lens,  and  were  called 
single  lenses.  Various  other  forms 
of  single  lenses  have  since  been  made, 
sometimes  with  three  elements,  as  in 
Fig.  9,  which  shows  a  meniscus  flint 
lens  cemented  between  two  crown  con- 
cavo-convex lenses. 
After  a  time  it  was  discovered  that  a  separated 
combination  of  lenses  had  powers  greatly  supe- 
rior to  those  of  the  single  lenses.  Two  of  these 
combinations  are  shown  in  Fig.  10. 


Fig.  10. 


The  first  of  these  is  the  orthoscopic  lens,  de- 
vised to  correct  linear  distortion,  or  the  bending 
of  lines  on  the  outer  edge  of  an  image  produced 
by  a  spectacle  glass,  or  other  simple  lens,  and  to 
cure  the  spherical  aberration  in  focus.  There 
are  four  lenses  in  combination,  a  diaphragm  rest- 
ing between  the  two  front  and  two  back  lenses. 
The  second  shows  Dallmeyer's  "  triple  achro- 
matic "  lens,  with  six  lenses  in  combination,  the 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY.  67 

diaphragm  coming  between  the  first  and  second 
pair.  Sometimes  it  has  been  found  advantageous 
to  employ  very  thick  lenses,  as  in  the  Steinheil 
aplanatic  lens,  shown  in  Fig.  11. 

Designs  for  lenses  are  constantly  undergoing 
changes,  as  practice  and  ex- 
periment reveal  the  useful- 
ness of  new  combinations. 
One  of  the  most  useful  of 
recent  inventions  is  a  telo- 
photographic  lens,  designed 
for  photographing  objects  at 
a  distance.  Dallmeyer,  the  inventor  of  the  new 
lens,  says :  "  Hitherto  only  two  methods  of  produ- 
cing large  images  had  been  employed :  first,  the  use 
of  very  long-focus  positive  ordinary  lenses ;  and 
second,  the  production  of  a  primary  image  by  one 
positive  lens,  and  placing  a  secondary  magnifier 
or  second  positive  lens  behind  the  plane  of  the 
primary  image,  which  enlarges  it  more  or  less, 
according  to  its  focal  length  and  its  adjustment 
between  the  positions  of  the  planes  of  the  pri- 
mary image  and  that  of  the  focusing  screen,  as  in 
the  photo-heliograph,  etc. 

"  The  first  of  the  older  methods  had  been  sel- 
dom employed,  except  in  astronomical  photogra- 
phy, on  account  of  its  un wieldly  dimensions ;  and 
the  second  method  referred  to  is  practically  use- 
less for  ordinary  photographic  work  on  account 
of  the  great  loss  of  light  involved,  rendering  the 


68     CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 


length  of  time  necessary  for  proper  exposure 
so  great  as  to  cause  it  to  be  almost  prohibitive, 
except  in  the  case  of  inanimate  objects." 

Of  course  any  telescope  may  be  arranged  so 
as  to  place  its  image  on  a  camera  ground  glass 
through  an  intervening  lens.  One  operator  men- 
tions the  use  of  the  barrel  of  an  opera  glass,  with 
the  large  lens  toward  the  object. 

In  the  Dallmeyer  lens,  the  outer  glass  image  is 
intercepted  by  an  actinically  corrected  negative 
lens  of  greater  negative  power  than  the  positive 
power  of  the  other.  How  great  the  enlargement 
shall  be,  is  determined  by  the  distance  apart  of  the 
lenses  and  the  distance  of  the  focusing  screen. 

THE  FOCUS  OF  A  LENS. 

Principal  Focus.  This  term  is  applied  to 
the  point  at  which  rays  parallel  to  the  principal 
axis  of  a  convergent  lens  meet  on  the  other  side  of 
the  lens.  Rays  not  parallel  converge  at  a  second 
point;  and  the  relation  between  the  two  points 
is  described  as  conjugate  foci.    (Figs.  6  and  7). 

Equivalent  Focus.  The  equivalent  focus  of 
a  lens  is  discovered  by  measuring  from  a  point 
midway  between  the  two  combinations  of  a  doublet 
lens,  as  from  the  diaphragm  slot,  and  the  ground 
glass  when  some  object  at  a  distance  (300  feet  or 
more)  is  in  focus. 

Focal  Length.  The  focal  length  of  a  lens  is 
represented  by  the  distance  of  the  principal  focus 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY .  69 


from  its  optical  centre.  The  optical  centre  is 
often  described  as  at  the  point  where  the  stop  is 
placed;  but  this  is  inaccurate.  The  actual  opti- 
cal centre  of  a  combination  lens  can  only  be  de- 
termined by  a  calculation  based  on  the  centre  of 
the  conjugate  foci,  and  it  is  probably  unnecessary 
to  go  into  so  scientific  a  matter  here.  The  equiv- 
alent focus  is  sufficiently  discovered  by  measuring 
from  the  mechanical  centre.  Finding  the  centre  of 
a  single  lens  is  thus  described :  Draw  two  parallel 
radial  lines,  one  from  the  centre  of  each  curva- 
ture, and  both  being  oblique  to  the  axis ;  then 
connect  the  points  at  which  they  touch  the  curved 
surface  by  a  line  which,  in  the  case  of  a  meniscus, 
must  be  prolonged  till  it  meets  the  axis.  The 
point  at  which  this  junction  line  touches  the  axis 
is  the  optical  centre. 

Depth  of  Focus.  Depth  of  focus,  so  called, 
in  a  lens,  a  property  increased  by  the  decrease  in 
the  size  of  the  stop-opening,  is  the  capacity  to 
define  objects  at  various  distances  with  approxi- 
mate sharpness.  Thus  portrait  lenses  have  very 
little  depth  of  focus,  and  certain  small  hand 
camera  lenses  have  a  great  deal,  giving  approxi- 
mate sharpness  to  all  objects  beyond  a  few  feet 
from  the  lens. 

STOPS  AND  DIAPHRAGMS. 

The  perforated  metal  plate  placed  in  contact 
with  a  lens  is  called  a  "  stop  ; "  when  not  in 


70     CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

contact  with  the  lens,  but  at  some  distance  from 
it,  the  plate  is  called  a  "  diaphragm."  But  both 
are  often  called  stops.  To  "stop  down"  is  to 
decrease  the  aperture  through  which  the  image 
shall  pass,  by  using  a  diaphragm. 

Simple  single  lenses  cannot  be  used  without  a 
stop,  and  the  perforated  plate  is  fastened  in  place. 
Doublet  lenses  are  accompanied  by  a  series  of 
diaphragms.  In  a  symmetrical  lens  of  this  class 
the  diaphragm  is  placed  to  greatest  advantage 
midway  between  the  two  combinations.  There  is 
much  difference  of  opinion  as  to  how  large  should 
b$  the  opening  in  fixed  stops,  and  much  also  as 
to  the  position  of  diaphragm  and  "  exposer " 
combinations. 

A  large  opening  is  preferred  for  bold  artistic 
effects.  A  small  opening  increases  the  working 
area  of  the  lens ;  that  is  to  say,  the  lens  will  work 
"  sharply  "  over  a  wider  area  in  proportion  as 
the  size  of  the  opening  is  reduced.  The  size  of 
the  opening  is  regulated  by  the  amount  of  light, 
by  the  speed  at  which  the  exposure  may  or  must 
be  made,  and  by  the  requirements  of  the  subject 
and  picture  to  be  produced. 

Diagrams  generally  are,  and  always  should  be, 
marked  with  some  sign  of  their  focal  value.  Mr. 
E.  J.  Wall  gives  this  brief  illustration  of  the 
system  of  marking,  by  which  f  /  x  expresses  the 
focal  length  of  the  lens  :  — 

"  To  find  this  number  divide  the  focal  length 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY.  71 


of  the  lens  by  the  diameter  of  the  diaphragm ; 
e.  g.,  focal  length  of  lens,  in. ;  diameter  of  dia- 
phragm, f  in.  ;  8^  -r  -|  =  11.3 ;  number  of  dia- 
phragm,/*/11.3.  The  Photographic  Society  of 
Great  Britain,  however,  number  the  diaphragms 
in  rather  a  different  way,  taking  f  /  4  as  the  stan- 
dard, which  they  call  No.  1.  This  system  is 
termed  the  uniform  standard,  or  '  U.  S.  No.,'  and 
the  U.  S.  number  for  any  diaphragm  marked  on 
the  f  fx  system  may  be  found  by  the  follow- 
ing rule :  Divide  the  focal  length  of  lens  by 
diameter  of  diaphragm  tof/x,  square  the  re- 
sult, divide  by  sixteen,  and  the  result  will  be  the 
U.  S.  number.  Example  :  Find  U.  S.  number 
of  diaphragm  marked  f  /  11.3.  11.3x11.3  = 
127.69  ;  127.69  -f  16  =  7.98,  or  practically  8, 
U.  S.  number." 

Thus  No.  1  is  always  one  fourth  of  the  equiva- 
lent focus  of  the  lens  ;  and  under  the  arrangement 
of  the  numbers  No.  2  will  require  an  exposure 
twice  as  long  as  with  No.  1,  and  No.  4  (the  next 
number),  twice  as  long  as  with  No.  2,  and  so  on. 
When  the  relation  between  the  size  of  the  stop 
and  the  length  of  the  focus  is  the  same,  all  lenses 
are,  generally  speaking,  equally  rapid. 

The  iris  diaphragm  is  the  name  given  to  a  form 
of  diaphragm  which,  by  the  use  of  a  series  of 
metal  or  rubber  plates,  opens  and  closes  like  the 
iris  of  the  human  eye. 


72     CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 


THE  CAMERA  BOX. 

The  camera  box  is  very  much  the  same  to-day  as 
it  was  in  the  early  days  of  photography.  It  has 
changed  considerably  in  the  details  of  its  make- 
up, but  its  general  character  is  the  same  as  when 
it  was  used  by  Daguerre.  The  lens  is  set  in  one 
end,  the  plate  is  held  at  the  other.  An  impor- 
tant advance  was  made  when  the  back  of  the  box 
was  adjusted  so  to  be  set  at  an  angle  different 
from  the  plane  of  the  lens.  This  "  swing  back," 
as  it  is  generally  called,  enables  the  operator  to 
accommodate  the  surface  of  the  plate  to  the  laws 
of  perspective  in  vertical  and  parallel  lines,  and 
to  the  correction  of  focus  and  distortion  in  fore- 
grounds, in  seated  figures,  etc. 

Other  improvements  on  the  primary  form  of 
the  camera  were  the  rising  and  falling  front  board, 
bringing  the  lens  opposite  any  line  on  the  plate, 
and  thus  facilitating  the  placing  of  horizon  lines, 
>  etc.  ;  the  swinging  box,  giving  the  vertical  or 
horizontal  form  to  the  picture ;  a  toothed  wheel 
roadbed  to  aid  in  a  rapid  and  convenient  adjust- 
ment of  the  focus ;  a  folding  roadbed  for  the 
bellows  carriage,  and  various  other  devices  for 
making  the  camera  compact,  "  handy,"  and  of  as 
little  weight  as  is  consistent  with  requisite  strength. 

When  quick  photography  became  possible,  the 
cap  which  was  used  to  cover  the  face  of  the  lens 
was  superseded  by  the  "  shutter  "  or  exposer,  a 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY,  73 


piece  of  mechanism  operated  by  a  lever  at  first 
and  afterward  by  an  air  tube.  Hundreds  of  these 
exposers  have  been  invented.  The  simplest  form 
is  the  "  drop  shutter,"  shown  in  Fig.  12,  in  which 
a  release  permits  a  rubber  band,  or  the  weight  of 
the  shutter  itself,  to  draw  one  opening  across  the 
face  of  another,  the  exposure  occurring  during  the 
moment  when  the  light  flashes  through  the  two 
openings.  The  draw- 
ing shows,  in  A,  the 
back  of  the  apparatus, 
the  circular  hole  in  the 
main  part  fitting  over 
the  tube  of  the  lens. 
An  end  section  of  this 
main  part  is  shown  in 
C.  Into  this  slides  B, 
with  a  wide  strip  at  the 
top,  as  shown  in  the 
side  view,  D,  to  prevent 
it  from  dropping  all 
the  way  through.  A 
small  metal  elbow  (cut- 
ting of  zinc  or  brass) 
sets  into  the  notch  at 
E  when  the  shutter  is 
set.    The  rubber  band 


Fig.  12. 


as  shown  in  A  may  be  stretched  to  either  of  two 
buttons  at  the  back  of  the  main  part,  to  vary  the 
speed,  or  may  be  taken  off  altogether  for  a  mod- 


74    CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

erate  exposure  of  about  one  fifth  of  a  second.  The 
speed  may  be  greatly  decreased  by  turning  the 
apparatus  so  that  the  drop  shall  be  at  an  angle. 
Of  course  the  string  must  not  be  pulled  violently, 
so  as  to  make  the  camera  oscillate.  This  sort 
of  a  home-made  shutter  is  sometimes  amplified 
by  a  pneumatic  —  air  tube  —  attachment,  which 
releases  the  catch  that  in  the  simpler  form  is 
drawn  out  by  a  string.  The  chief  advantage  of 
the  tube  over  the  string  is  that  it  does  away  with 
the  chance  of  jarring  the  instrument.  The  pneu- 
matic tube  is  used  in  almost  all  of  the  later  ex- 
posers. 

Among  the  forms  of  exposer  which  have  re- 
cently been  perfected  are  several  which,  by  an 
arrangement  of  metal  or  hard-rubber  disks,  open 
in  the  centre  and  show  a  circular  opening  to  any 
desired  size,  and  contract  again  until  the  aperture 
is  entirely  closed.  These  operate  instantaneously 
or  slowly,  as  the  operator  may  require.  Ad- 
mirable as  these  shutters  are,  they  have  the  de- 
fect of  giving  the  greatest  amount  of  exposure 
at  the  centre  of  the  lens,  and  thus  increase  the 
difficulty  resulting  from  the  lens's  tendency  to  act 
most  quickly  in  the  centre.  The  ideal  exposer 
would  seem  to  be  one  that  began  to  open  at  the 
rim  of  the  lens  and  finally  opened  to  the  centre, 
closing  again  from  the  centre  outward ;  but  how 
the  mechanical  difficulty  of  constructing  such  a 
shutter  is  to  be  overcome,  no  one,  I  think,  has  yet 
been  able  to  suggest. 


CAMERA  IN  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHY.  75 

An  interesting  result  of  the  development  of 
quick  photography  was  the  invention  of  the  hand 
camera,  a  portable  instrument  that  is  often  called 
a  "  detective  "  camera,  from  the  fact  that  it  made 
it  possible  to  take  pictures  without  observation. 
When  the  "  wet-plate  amateur  "  of  olden  times 
went  out  to  make  pictures,  he  was  compelled  to 
make  known  the  business  of  his  excursion  in 
apparatus  that  would,  as  I  have  said,  now  seem 
very  ponderous  indeed.  The  modern  amateur's 
outfit  is  exceedingly  compact,  even  when  he  sallies 
forth  with  his  tripod  camera ;  and  when  his  cam- 
era is  a  "  detective  "  his  burden  is  very  light  and 
inconspicuous. 

The  effort  to  make  a  hand  camera  that  would 
not  seem  to  be  a  camera  has  sometimes  resulted 
in  very  curious  contrivances.  But  we  shall  study 
cameras  to  better  advantage  in  considering  the 
things  they  are  required  to  do. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 

When  the  mercantile  photographer  fits  up  his 
gallery,  he  does  so  after  certain  accepted  rules. 
His  skylight  has  a  certain  angle,  and  if  possible 
faces  the  north,  so  that  it  may  have  the  full  light 
of  the  sky,  with  no  direct  rays  from  the  sun. 
His  camera  is  on  a  carriage  ;  he  has  sitters'  chairs, 
headrests,  reflecting  screens,  backgrounds,  rustic 
railings,  "  grass  "  rugs,  artificial  vines,  and  other 
paraphernalia  as  his  business  may  require. 

Very  few  amateur  photographers  can  ride  their 
hobby  with  these  surroundings.  There  are,  in- 
deed, amateurs  who  go  into  photography  with  a 
splendor  of  equipment  far  beyond  anything  that 
will  be  found  in  mercantile  galleries.  I  know  a 
lady  who  has  a  complete  garden  gallery,  as  well 
as  a  finely  appointed  studio  in  the  upper  part  of 
her  house;  who  has  about  thirty  cameras,  and 
who  otherwise  follows  photography  upon  a  plan 
of  having  every  possible  mechanical  requirement. 
I  know  other  home  galleries,  upon  which  thou- 
sands of  dollars  have  been  spent,  which  are  fitted 
with  luxurious  conveniences  such  as  no  one  will 
ever  find  in  a  "  professional "  gallery. 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


77 


But  such  equipments  are  exceptional,  and  this 
book  will  take  it  for  granted  that  the  average 
amateur  has  no  intention  or  expectation  of  taking 
up  photography  in  this  style.  It  certainly  would 
be  a  very  rash  thing  for  any  beginner  to  gather 
more  than  the  simplest  materials  at  the  outset. 
When  the  beginner  has  become  by  experience 
a  master  or  mistress  of  the  science  and  the  arts 
of  its  application,  it  is  time  enough  to  gather 
expensive  implements. 

It  is  a  fact,  however,  that  it  is  much  easier  to 
make  pictures  in  a  well-lighted  gallery  than  in 
the  light  of  an  ordinary  room ;  not  only  because 
there  is  more  light  in  the  gallery,  but  because  the 
light  is  more  favorably  distributed,  and  falls 
mostly  from  overhead.  For  this  reason  the  ama- 
teur should,  if  possible,  have  a  home  gallery  with 
a  "top"  light  or  at  least  a  high  side  light. 
A  top  light  may  sometimes  be  had  from  a  sky- 
light in  an  attic  room.  If  it  were  thought  desir- 
able, a  skylight  might  be  cut  in  some  large  top- 
floor  room,  or  in  the  more  ample  if  less  finished 
quarters  of  a  barn  or  carriage-house.  The  ex- 
pense of  cutting  a  skylight  will  depend  directly 
upon  its  size,  and  upon  the  slope  of  the  roof  in 
which  it  is  cut.  If  the  roof  slopes  sufficiently  to 
permit  the  glass  frame  to  be  set  directly  against 
it,  the  arrangement  will  be  simple  and  economi- 
cal ;  but  if  the  roof  is  flat  or  has  only  a  slight 
pitch,  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  a  greater  slope 


78 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


to  the  glass  frame,  and  the  lifting  and  boxing  of 
one  end  will  complicate  the  affair.  If  the  ceiling 
is  rather  low,  that  is,  less  than  eight  feet  above 
the  floor,  it  may  be  necessary  to  raise  the  sky- 
light in  any  case. 


Fig.  13. 


The  conventional  roof  light  joins  with  a  side- 
light, as  roughly  indicated  in  Fig.  13.  A  roof 
light  alone,  even  when  strong  reflectors  are  used, 
is  likely  to  cast  strong  shadows,  which  only  the 
most  experienced  photographic  artist  is  able  to 
manage.  The  sidelight  modifies  these  shadows, 
and  helps,  by  the  partnership  of  the  reflectors,  to 
fill  the  place  with  an  amount  of  diffused  light 
sufficient  to  give  pleasant  effects  in  portraiture ; 
but  only  a  specially  constructed  gallery,  such  as 
few  amateurs  possess,  will  have  this  combination. 
However,  it  may  be  possible  in  letting  in  a  sky- 
light to  place  it  in  line  with  a  window.  This 
will  make  something  like  the  necessary  combina- 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


79 


tion,  without  interfering  with  the  structure  of  the 
house. 

If  the  amateur  cannot  have  a  roof  light,  and 
must  get  along  with  the  side  light  of  a  window, 
let  him  get  as  tall  a  window  as  possible.  If  he  is 
to  have  the  room  in  which  the  window  appears  as 
a  permanent  gallery  for  indoor  work,  and  can 
arrange  it  without  necessity  for  change,  the  lower 
part  of  the  window  may  be  covered  to  a  height 
level  with  the  shoulders  of  a  seated  person.  This 
covering  should  be  dark,  and  exclude  light  at  this 
part  of  the  window.  For  the  space  of  one  foot 
above  this  dark  covering,  or  to  a  height  about 
equal  to  the  top  of  a  seated  person's  head,  a 
lighter  material  might  be  stretched  across  the 
window,  leaving  the  light  to  fall  freely  from 
above.  This  arrangement  will  give  to  the  illu- 
mination of  the  sitter  something  of  the  effect 
of  a  light  falling  from  above,  or  at  a  downward 
angle,  and  will  give  a  much  more  artistic  result 
than  if  the  light  from  the  window  came  hori- 
zontally to  the  sitter's  face. 

There  is  little  use  of  attempting  to  imitate  the 
"  effects "  of  the  professional  gallery,  not  only 
because  these  will  be  very  difficult  if  not  impossi- 
ble to  secure,  but  because  a  home  photograph  will 
be  much  more  charming  for  containing  some  sug- 
gestions of  the  home  light.  In  fact,  the  photo- 
graphs of  the  trade  gallery  often  look  unnatural, 
or  at  least  unfamiliar,  because  the  light  is  neither 


80 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


the  diffused  downward  light  of  the  street  nor  the 
side  light  of  the  house. 

Thus  it  is  needless  to  seek  to  altogether  destroy 
the  effect  of  the  ordinary  window  light.  The 
necessity  for  the  light  at  a  downward  angle  is  a 
necessity  based  on  the  advantage  this  angle  gives 
in  reflections.  And  here  comes  the  great  diffi- 
culty in  the  home  gallery. 

If  the  amateur  were  to  undertake  an  experi- 
ment and  try  a  portrait  at  an  undraped  window, 
and  without  reflectors,  he  would  find  the  result  to 
be  this :  a  face  strongly  lighted  on  one  side,  the 
shadows  all  thrown  from  right  to  left  or  left  to 
right,  and  the  side  of  the  head  opposite  the 
window  dark  and  without  relief.  The  strong  side 
light  probably  gives  a  poor  effect  in  the  eyes,  if 
both  are  illuminated  by  it,  and  the  nose  may 
keep  all  light  from  the  "  off  "  cheek.  When  the 
lower  part  of  the  window  is  draped,  the  amount 
of  light  is  diminished,  but  the  general  direction 
of  the  remaining  illumination  is  better  than  be- 
fore. The  brows  cast  a  downward  shadow,  and 
the  nose  and  lips  appear  to  better  advantage. 
The  "off"  side  of  the  head,  however,  still  re- 
mains unlighted. 

This  difficulty  must  be  met  by  reflectors.  I 
have  improvised  reflectors  for  an  impromptu  win- 
dow portrait  by  covering  the  floor  about  the  sitter 
with  newspapers,  hanging  newspapers  or  other 
white  sheets  of  paper  or  muslin  under  the  nose  of 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


81 


the  camera,  and  hanging  up  or  holding  up  other 
white  material  opposite  the  window  light  and  just 
out  of  range  of  the  portrait.  Of  course  in  a  room 
with  white  or  very  light  walls  there  will  be  much 
less  necessity  for  strong  reflectors  than  in  one  with 
dark  paper  or  frescoing.  But  in  any  case  even 
the  improvised  newspaper  reflectors  are  better  than 
nothing. 

For  reflectors  more  conveniently  arranged  there 
are  many  plans.  The  simplest  may  be  prepared 
in  this  way  :  A  wooden  frame  about  five  feet 
high  by  three  feet  wide,  with  a  supporting  brace 
in  the  middle,  is  covered  by  tightly  stretched 
muslin.  The  muslin  should  be  either  thick 
bleached  sheeting  or  ordinary  unbleached  stuff 
painted  with  a  preparation  of  whitening  contain- 
ing five  per  cent  of  glue. 

A  painted  surface  will  throw  a  stronger  reflec- 
tion than  the  whitest  goods,  because  the  paint  fills 
the  grain  and  presents  a  flatter  field.  This  frame 
may  rest  upon  the  floor  with  a  chair  or  other  ob- 
ject to  support  it,  or  it  maybe  adjusted  in  a  frame 
standing  on  rollers  so  as  to  be  moved  about  from 
one  position  to  another  at  will. 

I  may  remark  here  that  all  the  supplies  for  a 
gallery  are  to  be  had  at  places  where  photographic 
supplies  are  sold,  but  I  give  these  hints  on  the 
presumption  that  most  amateurs  will  wish  to  ar- 
range their  own  appliances. 

When  placed  in  position  the  bottom  of  the 


82 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


screen  should  be  about  twelve  or  fifteen  inches 
nearer  the  window  than  the  top,  so  as  to  cast  light 
upward  into  the  shadows.  If  it  is  placed  directly 
opposite  the  window,  it  will  have  the  effect  of  di- 
minishing the  shadow  directly  opposite  the  lighted 
side  of  the  head  and  of  leaving  the  strongest  shadow 
in  the  middle  of  the  face  as  it  appears  to  the 
camera.  By  placing  the  screen  nearer  the  camera 
and  turning  it  so  as  to  partly  face  the  sitter,  the 
lights  and  shadows  will  be  more  agreeably  graded. 

The  background  to  a  simple  portrait  may  be 
made  of  some  unfigured  material,  a  deep  gray 
preferably.  Without  such  a  background  the  ob- 
jects of  the  room  may  disturb  the  harmony  of  the 
picture.  If  nothing  without  figures  is  at  hand, 
hang  the  background  far  enough  from  the  head 
to  place  it  out  of  focus.  The  background  material 
should  be  hung  or  stretched  so  as  to  be  without 
wrinkles.  Even  when  it  is  wished  to  have  a  white 
ground  behind  the  head  in  the  picture,  it  is  better 


Window 

Corner  & 


Screen 

Fig.  14. 


not  to  use  a  pure  white  material  for  the  back- 
ground. A  light  gray  will  photograph  sufficiently 
white,  and  it  will  be  safer,  for  reasons  which  will 
afterward  be  explained. 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


83 


The  camera  should  not  be  placed  at  right  angles 
with  the  window,  but  so  as  to  aim  somewhat  in 
the  direction  in  which  the  light  is  falling.  A 
proper  position  for  the  camera,  for  the  sitter's 
chair,  and  the  reflecting  screen  is  indicated  in 
Fig.  14. 

The  three  portraits  of  a  child  taken  at  an 
ordinary  window  show  the  uses  of  a  reflector. 
No.  1  is  taken  with  no  covering  upon  the  lower 
part  of  the  window  and  no  reflector.  In  No.  2 
the  window  has  been  treated  properly,  giving  a 
much  more  agreeable  upper  light  on  the  face, 
but  the  reflector  is  too  far  around  —  at  right  an- 
gles with  the  window.  In  No.  3  the  reflector  is 
properly  placed. 

If  the  camera  contains  a  portrait  lens,  it  will  be 
possible  to  take  relatively  a  larger  head  than  if  a 
landscape  or  general  utility  lens  is  in  use.  The 
portrait  lens,  being  made  especially  for  the  work, 
will  permit  of  a  better  position  and  a  more  favor- 
able exposure.  With  an  ordinary  lens  not  made 
for  portraiture,  it  is  not  well  to  get  too  close  to 
the  sitter  in  order  to  secure  a  large  figure,  for  the 
wide  angle  lens  will  give  an  unnatural  effect. 

In  taking  a  seated  figure  or  figures,  it  is  well  to 
point  the  camera  slightly  downward,  for  the  reason 
that  the  lower  part  of  the  figure  will  be  nearer  the 
lens  than  the  upper  part  and  a  slight  tilting  of 
the  camera  will  bring  the  upper  and  lower  parts  of 
the  image  more  nearly  in  focus.    A  camera  with 


84 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


a  "  swing  back  "  should  be  operated  with  regard 
to  this  fact. 

If  the  figure  is  posed  with  any  but  a  plain 
background,  especially  if  with  one  having  upright 
lines  as  in  wainscoting,  door  frames,  window  cas- 
ings, screens,  etc.,  it  becomes  necessary  to  com- 
promise. When  he  brings  in  accessories  the  pho- 
tographer must  have  regard  to  them  and  must  do 
them  justice  also.  These  upright  lines  must  not 
be  distorted  in  the  aiming  of  the  camera  or  in 
the  use  of  the  "  swing  back ; "  they  will  not  all  be 
perfectly  upright  in  the  negative  if  the  plane  of 
the  lens  is  not  parallel  with  them.  The  "  swing 
back  "  can  modify  the  difficulty  to  some  extent, 
but  not  very  greatly,  should  the  lens  be  of  wide 
angle  and  be  brought  close  to  the  figure. 

In  any  case  it  is  a  rule  of  portraiture  to  focus 
on  the  face  of  the  sitter,  and,  if  the  picture  is  of 
the  head  only,  on  the  pupil  of  the  eye.  Having 
focused  on  the  eye  or  eyes  of  the  sitter,  the  re- 
mainder of  the  head  or  figure  must  come  within 
focus  as  it  may.  The  farther  the  sitter  is  from 
the  camera,  the  less  will  be  the  variation  in  focus 
between  one  part  of  the  figure  and  another.  In 
focusing,  as  in  arranging,  it  is  always  to  be  remem- 
bered that  in  a  portrait  study  the  figure  is  the 
thing.  If  other  objects  are  brought  into  the  pic- 
ture, as  when  a  room  with  its  natural  furnishings 
is  made  the  background  —  a  very  difficult  thing 
to  do  artistically  —  care  should  be  taken  to  re- 


THE  HOME  GALLERY.  85 

• 

move  at  least  very  bright  objects  that  will  take  a 
stronger  light  than  the  face.  If  bright  objects 
are  in  partial  shadow  so  that  they  will  not  glare, 
this  danger  is  overcome.  The  trade  gallery  has 
a  painted  imitation  of  an  interior,  not  because 
an  actual  interior  might  not  be  arranged  under 
the  skylight,  but  because  the  whole  scene  will 
then  be  on  the  same  focal  plane  and  will  have 
no  glistening  or  white  objects  within  its  field. 
This  throws  the  figure  into  strong  relief,  an  ar- 
tistic necessity  of  portraiture.  By  allowing  his 
background  to  fall  out  of  focus,  the  amateur  gives 
some  of  the  same  relief  to  the  figure. 

The  best  plan — for  the  beginner  at  least  —  is 
not  to  make  composition  pictures  of  a  formal 
kind,  but  to  attempt  simple  portraits,  that  seem 
to  be  what  they  are  and  no  more.  The  "  fixed- 
up  "  part  of  a  picture  always  looks  fixed  up,  and 
the  thing  that  is  most  enjoyable  in  a  portrait  is 
—  the  portrait.  However,  if  there  is  anything 
that  must  be  arranged,  in  the  drapery  of  the  fig- 
ure, in  the  adjusting  of  the  hair  or  ornaments,  or 
in  the  placing  of  the  hands,  give  up  whatever 
time  is  necessary  to  do  the  work  perfectly.  Some- 
times, in  photographing  a  child,  for  instance,  the 
off-hand  position  taken  before  any  instructions  are 
given  is  better  than  any  formal  device  that  could 
be  adopted.  I  say  "sometimes."  The  position 
taken  without  care  is  very  seldom  the  best  position. 
A  natural  position  is  the  best  position,  but  this 


86  THE  HOME  GALLERY. 

does  not  mean  the  position  that  is  taken  without 
thought  or  even  one  that  feels  natural  to  the  sitter. 
The  art  comes  in  making  the  position  as  seen  in  the 
picture  look  natural.  A  position  that  will  look 
natural  in  the  picture  may  feel  unnatural  to  the 
sitter,  but  there  are  peculiarities  in  the  lens  and 
in  the  eye  that  make  it  necessary  to  think  only  of 
how  the  effect  will  appear  in  the  resulting  picture. 

Skill  in  posing  a  sitter  has  to  be  acquired  by 
study  and  experience,  and  the  beginner  must  not 
lose  patience  if  his  early  attempts  lack  something 
that  they  should  have.  The  beginner  must  not 
lose  courage  if  the  portrait  over  which  he  has 
taken  a  great  deal  of  trouble  does  n't  result  so 
favorably  as  the  portrait  which  was  taken  haphaz- 
ard. This  does  not  mean  that  it  is  not  a  good 
idea  to  take  pains ;  it  only  means  that  pains  and 
experience  have  not  yet  gone  far  enough. 

Let  me  offer  in  a  consecutive  way  some  spe- 
cial hints  on  work  in  the  home  gallery. 

The  Subject.  Since  the  amateur  does  not 
generally  have  so  much  light  as  the  mercantile 
photographer,  and  since  he  wishes  to  get  along 
without  the  iron  head-clamp  we  used  to  meet  in 
the  professional  gallery  (what  a  chill  it  gives  you  ! 
—  like  the  first  touch  of  the  steel  when  you  are 
going  to  have  a  tooth  pulled!),  he  should  have 
his  sitter  firmly  seated  against  the  chair  back, 
particularly  if  it  be  a  very  young  sitter.  In 
the  case  of  children,  contrive  to  have  the  head 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


87 


steadied  in  some  way,  unless  there  is  a  brilliant 
light  and  the  exposure  is  to  be  very  short.  Per- 
haps the  background  screen  or  drapery  may  be 
brought  close  to  the  chair,  and  the  head  may  be 
steadied  by  some  unseen  object  (perhaps  another 
chair)  from  behind ;  for  the  sitter  should  be  ab- 
solutely still  during  the  exposure.  Even  with 
a  good  light  and  a  large  stop,  the  exposure  will 
probably  occupy  two  or  three  seconds,  and  in 
half  a  second  a  restless  sitter  can  move  a  great 
deal.  Where  you  have  a  very  young  patient, 
with  no  patience,  leave  out  the  stop,  and  possibly 
a  second  will  do ;  even  with  a  lens  used  for  doing 
all  sorts  of  work  a  larger  stop  may  be  used  for 
portraits  than  for  landscapes.  The  "  exposer  " 
operated  with  a  long  rubber  tube  and  air  bulb, 
and  capable  of  giving  a  short  or  a  long  exposure, 
is  almost  indispensable,  especially  for  taking  the 
baby.  It  is  very  hard  to  dance  around  and  say 
"  Hi,  yi !  "  and  wave  the  fire  tongs,  and  calculate 
the  pose  of  the  head  and  whether  the  expression 
is  favorable,  and  at  the  same  time  take  off  a 
"  cap  "  successfully. 

If  a  view  lens  is  being  used  do  not  take  profiles 
at  too  close  quarters,  or  the  ear  in  the  negative, 
having  been  so  much  nearer  than  the  other  fea- 
tures, will  astonish  you ! 

It  is  generally  inadvisable  to  have  a  person  of 
light  complexion,  and  particularly  with  blue  or 
gray  eyes,  face  toward  the  light.    A  person  with 


88 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


dark  eyes  may  turn  toward  the  light ;  and  a  per- 
son with  deep-set  eyes,  even  when  these  are  gray 
or  blue,  can  seldom  be  turned  from  the  light. 
Never  forget  the  hands !  If  they  must  be  nearer 
the  lens  than  the  face,  see  that  they  are  well  placed. 
A  person  often  relaxes  the  hands  under  what  seems 
like  an  operation,  and  tempts  the  lens  to  make 
them  seem  unnaturally  large.  Induce  the  sitter 
to  take  charge  of  his  hands,  to  gather  up  some  of 
the  fingers,  to  hold  a  book  or  fan  or  photograph. 
Of  course,  when  the  picture  is  to  be  of  the  bust 
only,  it  is  unnecessary  to  do  otherwise  than  have 
the  hands  resting  in  the  lap. 

See  that  the  sitter's  hair  is  properly  arranged  ; 
that  is,  whether  it  is  to  be  formal  or  negligee ;  see 
that  there  are  not  stray  locks,  or  pugnacious  tufts 
on  the  crown  that  would  not  look  satisfactory  in 
the  picture.  What  you  shall  do  in  these  and  in 
other  particulars  will  depend  to  some  extent  upon 
whether  you  are  making  the  picture  according 
to  your  own  ideas,  or  to  please  the  "  patient "  and 
his  friends.  In  any  case  it  will  pay  to  consider 
what  the  sitter  will  say.  When  the  sitter  says, 
"  I  wish  I  had  known  my  hair  was  that  way  — 
that  just  spoils  the  whole  picture,"  the  pho- 
tographer, even  though  he  feels  justified  in  suit- 
ing himself,  will  feel  a  regret  that  he  did  not 
save  himself  the  annoyance  of  having  his  subject 
dissatisfied. 

Much  of  the  naturalness  and  interest  of  a  por- 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


89 


trait  will  depend  upon  the  eyes.  It  is  always  safe 
to  have  the  eyes  directed  toward  the  camera ;  but 
there  is  a  safe  general  principle  that  if  the  head 
is  turned  either  from  full  face  toward  a  profile  or 
from  a  profile  toward  the  camera,  the  eyes  should 
be  turned  a  little  farther  than  the  head.  The  eyes 
always  precede  the  head  in  turning.  There  is  a 
prejudice  among  photographers  who  make  por- 
traits that  look  like  neither  life  nor  art,  in  favor 
of  having  the  pupils  of  the  eyes  precisely  in  the 
middle,  however  the  head  may  be  directed.  Of 
course  this  is  a  great  error.  In  looking  toward 
an  object  to  the  right  or  left,  we  never  turn  the 
head  far  enough  to  bring  the  pupils  precisely 
in  the  middle  between  the  open  lids,  and  atten- 
tion to  this  point  will  have  much  to  do  with 
the  success  of  a  portrait,  for  the  turn  of  the  eyes 
supplies  much  of  the  action  of  the  picture. 

One  caution  must  be  offered,  however,  in  the 
carrying  out  of  this  good  principle.  The  eyes 
cannot  be  turned  too  far  away  from  the  lens  if  the 
face  is  in  profile,  or  is  very  nearly  so.  In  fact,  in 
a  complete  profile  it  is  necessary  to  turn  the  eyes 
slightly  toward  the  side  on  which  the  camera  is 
placed.  If  this  precaution  is  not  taken  the  pupil 
may  seem  to  have  turned  farther  than  it  has,  and 
the  eye  will  appear  unnatural. 

The  most  unfortunate  of  all  blunders  with  the 
eyes,  yet  one  of  which  we  may  find  examples  in  any 
album  of  portraits,  Is  seen  in  those  cases  where 


90 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


the  head  has  been  turned,  let  us  say,  to  the  right, 
while  the  eyes  have,  by  the  photographer's  in- 
struction, been  turned  to  the  left  and  toward  the 
camera.  This  blunder  explains  the  stiffness  and 
unnaturalness  of  more  photographs  than  are  to 
be  explained  by  any  other  blunder  I  have  ever 
noticed. 

Don't  make  the  sitter  suffer  for  his  physical  de- 
fects by  trying  "effects"  that  have  been  produced 
successfully  with  sitters  who  did  not  have  these 
defects. 

The  Camera.  —  Focus  without  the  stop,  that 
you  may  be  the  more  certain  of  absolute  "  sharp- 
ness "  at  the  point  chosen  for  the  focusing. 

Have  the  camera  firmly  placed,  especially  if  it 
be  used  when  there  is  near-by  street  traffic  or  other 
chances  that  the  floor  may  be  shaken.  If  an  air- 
tube  exposer  be  used,  do  not  make  the  action  vio- 
lent enough  to  jar  the  camera  should  the  apparatus 
be  so  constructed  as  to  make  this  possible.  If  the 
exposure  is  made  with  a  cap,  loosen  the  cap  cau- 
tiously for  the  same  reason ;  lift  it  upward,  and 
return  it  from  the  upward  side  when  covering  the 
lens  again.  By  raising  the  cap  and  returning  it 
from  the  upward  side,  the  lower  part  of  the  outer 
lens  receives  the  more  light  and  the  more  highly 
illuminated  upper  part  of  the  subject  receives 
slightly  less  exposure  than  the  lower  part. 

Have  some  means  of  marking  the  exposed  side 
of  the  plate-holder.    It  is  very  annoying,  when 


THE  HOME  GALLERY, 


91 


the  sitter  inquires  for  a  print,  to  be  compelled  to 
admit  that  both  exposures  have  been  made  upon 
the  one  plate.  Holder  slides  that  are  reversible 
and  that  indicate  by  the  reversing  that  an  exposure 
has  been  made,  are  a  safe  means  of  avoiding  this 
trouble.  But  a  label  on  which  remarks  as  to  time, 
light,  etc.,  may  be  lightly  traced  in  lead  pencil,  is 
also  useful  and  sufficient. 

On  the  ground  side  of  the  focusing  glass  at  the 
back  of  the  camera,  mark  out  the  sizes,  upright 
and  horizontal,  of  the  plates  used  in  the  holders ; 
so  that  if  a  portrait  is  being  made  on  a  4  X  5  inch 
plate  in  a  5  X  8  inch  holder,  the  outline  of  the  4x5 
inch  size  may  enable  the  operator  to  locate  the  im- 
age in  the  proper  place.  Be  sure  that  the  head  or 
heads  are  high  enough  on  the  plate.  In  a  bust 
portrait  it  is  particularly  important  that  the  head 
should  be  well  up  on  the  plate.  If  the  face  turns 
toward  one  side  or  the  other,  leave  more  room  on 
the  plate  on  the  side  toward  which  the  face  turns 
than  on  the  opposite  side.  The  side  of  a  picture 
toward  which  a  figure  faces,  or  toward  which 
the  action  is  directed,  is  the  side  which  must  have 
the  widest  margin. 

INTERIORS. 

Lighting  being  the  great  difficulty  connected 
with  photography  indoors,  we  can  see  why  the 
picture  of  an  "  interior  "  of  an  entire  room  or  of 
several  connected  rooms  should  be  more  difficult 


92 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


to  photograph  than  a  person.  We  may  place  a 
sitter  near  a  window  and,  by  the  use  of  a  reflector 
and  other  devices,  produce  almost  any  effect  we 
choose.  But  the  room  cannot  be  moved,  and 
—  what  is  more  disconcerting  —  neither  can  the 
windows. 

A  window  opening  practically  represents  out  of 
doors  so  far  as  the  time  required  to  photograph 
it  is  concerned.  Draperies  and  shades  will,  of 
course,  modify  to  some  extent  the  brilliancy  of  the 
light ;  but  in  lessening  the  brightness  of  the  win- 
dow opening  in  the  picture,  we  shall  be  lessening 
the  illumination  of  all  the  objects  in  the  picture. 
Moreover,  other  parts  of  the  room  require  per- 
haps a  hundred  times  longer  exposure  than  the 
windows.  It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  something 
must  be  done  to  overcome  to  some  extent  this 
troublesome  difference. 

A  little  later  I  shall  speak  of  artificial  methods 
of  lighting  a  room,  but  at  present  we  may  look 
at  some  measures  for  using  daylight.  The  sim- 
plest method  of  doing  this,  and  the  one  most  fre- 
quently followed,  —  as  the  reader  will  notice  by 
studying  the  pictures  of  halls  and  galleries  gath- 
ered by  tourists,  —  is  that  of  choosing  a  point 
of  view  that  will  not  include  the  actual  openings 
of  the  windows.  In  doing  this  it  is  wise  also  to 
select  a  time  when  the  sun  is  not  beating  in ;  and 
if  possible  get  most  of  the  light  from  one  window, 
or  from  two  windows  close  together,  so  that  the 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


93 


shadows  on  the  floor  and  wall  will  not  cross  each 
other  in  a  disagreeable  way. 

When  a  window  comes  within  range,  and  there 
is  no  way  of  avoiding  it,  cover  it  up  with  a  blan- 
ket or  shawl,  so  that  no  light  may  come  through  ; 
then  get  the  illumination  from  an  adjoining  win- 
dow not  in  range,  and  hang  reflectors  in  such  a  way 
as  to  light  up  the  dim  corners.  Two  or  three  large 
sheets  and  many  newspapers  may  be  required. 
Perhaps  there  is  a  window  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  room  that  will  obviate  the  necessity  for  using 
the  reflectors.  In  some  instances  it  may  be  possi- 
ble to  overcome  obstinately  dense  shadows  in  un- 
lighted  parts  of  the  room  by  taking  a  hand  mirror 
and  keeping  its  reflection  moving  over  the  dim 
places  during  the  time  of  exposure.  (I  once  did 
this  patiently  for  half  an  hour,  and  then  discov- 
ered that  I  had  forgotten  to  remove  the  cap  from 
the  lens  !) 

If  there  is  no  hurry,  use  a  small  stop  for  this 
work,  and  give  the  room  half  an  hour,  an  hour 
exposure,  or  longer  if  need  be.  When  the  expos- 
ure is  completed,  replace  the  cap  carefully,  and 
remove  the  covering  from  the  window  (taking 
care  not  to  move  any  of  the  objects  in  the  room), 
and  give  the  whole  half  a  second  or  less  exposure, 
as  the  character  of  the  window  draperies  and  the 
amount  of  light  out  of  doors  may  suggest. 

It  is  natural  and  not  ineffective  that  there 
should  be  more  light  in  one  part  of  a  scene  than  in 


94 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


another ;  but  if  light  is  too  greatly  centred  in  one 
part  of  a  room,  the  corresponding  part  of  the 
plate  will  be  overdone,  as  it  were,  before  the 
other  parts  of  the  plate  have  received  a  sufficient 
impression.  The  contrast  between  light  and 
shade  being  exaggerated  in  photography,  it  is  par- 
ticularly necessary  that  the  illumination  should  be 
as  evenly  distributed  as  possible.  With  every 
care  the  high  lights  often  will  be  altogether  too 
"  high,"  and  in  the  subsequent  printing  from 
the  negative  the  effort  to  print  out  the  objects  in 
the  well-lighted  part  will  result  in  the  obscuring 
by  overprinting  of  the  objects  in  shadow  or  half 
shadow. 

I  have  already  mentioned  obtrusive  objects  in  a 
room.  While  it  is  not  a  good  idea,  in  photograph- 
ing a  domestic  room,  to  have  the  place  so  trans- 
formed in  order  to  look  artistic  that  it  is  afterward, 
in  the  picture,  unrecognizable  as  a  familiar  scene, 
there  is  no  harm  in  a  certain  kind  of  arrangement 
with  a  view  to  preventing  discordant  light  and 
dark  objects  from  disturbing  the  effect.  Ex- 
actly how  much  of  arrangement  or  of  leaving  out 
should  be  done,  the  photographer's  taste  must  de- 
cide. 

While  the  difficulties  of  focusing  make  it  neces- 
sary to  arrange  objects  with  this  fact  in  mind, 
the  matter  of  arrangement,  of  composition  (in 
tables,  chairs,  piano  lamps,  or  other  movable  ob« 
jects),  must  be  regulated  largely  by  the  general 


THE  HOME  GALLERY.  95 

principles  of  art.  For  hints  on  "  interior  "  com- 
position, study  the  works  of  the  best  painters  and 
illustrators. 

The  photographic  beginner  who  undertakes  to 
immortalize  the  various  nooks  of  home  will  often 
be  pressed  for  room  to  work  in.  A  few  feet  may 
be  gained  in  this  way:  Focus  upon  a  point  dis- 


a  e  c 


Fig.  15. 


tant  from  the  camera  about  as  far  as  four  fifths  of 
the  distance  from  the  point  where  the  camera  is 
to  stand  and  the  farthest  object  which  you  wish 
to  include  in  the  picture.  Then  put  in  the  plate- 
holder,  remove  the  box  from  the  tripod,  and  place 


96 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


it  on  a  firm  stand,  table,  or  perhaps  a  library 
shelf  from  which  books  have  been  removed, 
against  the  wall  or  in  a  corner.  This  will  secure 
a  much  longer  and  wider  range,  and  it  will  be 
easy  enough  to  guess  the  general  direction  in 
which  the  lens  should  be  aimed. 

Some  hints  upon  plans  for  photographing  an 
ordinary  city  "  alcove  "  chamber  or  library  are 
furnished  by  Fig.  15.  A  camera  at  D,  E,  F, 
or  G  could  be  operated  without  the  covering  of 
any  window.  H  would  call  for  the  covering  of 
the  window  A,  and  would  need  a  reflector  at  J. 
Working  from  D,  a  reflector  might  be  used  at  K. 
The  camera  at  D,  unless  all  the  objects  in  the 
room  are  close  against  the  wall,  should  be  focused 
upon  a  point  as  far  distant  as  the  letter  K.  Any 
room  may  be  photographed  on  the  same  principles. 

One  precaution  is  extremely  necessary  in  pho- 
tographing interiors ;  and  if  I  may  judge  by  the 
number  of  pictures  containing  a  certain  distress- 
ing defect,  it  is  always  advisable  to  point  out  this 
necessity.  In  focusing  be  careful  to  adjust  the 
camera  so  that  the  vertical  lines  shall  not  draw 
together,  or,  what  is  more  distressing,  lean  out- 
ward at  the  top.  With  a  lens  that  is  not  recti- 
linear, that  is  to  say,  "  corrected  "  to  avoid  the 
defect  of  a  curvature  in  all  the  outer  lines,  it  is 
impossible  to  avoid  a  tendency,  in  both  upright 
and  horizontal  lines,  to  fall  into  the  turns  of  the 
circle.    But  with  a  good  lens  there  is  no  excuse, 


THE  HOME  GALLERY. 


97 


and  the  lines  to  right  and  left  should  run  precisely 
with  the  margin  line  of  the  plate. 

I  say  "  no  excuse ;  "  but  where  the  camera  has 
no  swing  back  and  it  is  impossible  to  direct  it 
on  an  absolute  level,  a  certain  distortion  will  be 
unavoidable.  With  a  swing  back,  as  already  ex- 
plained, it  is  possible  to  avoid  the  disagreeable 
disturbance  of  lines  in  all  except  the  extreme 
cases  where  the  camera  must  be  pointed  upward 
or  downward.  With  a  hand  camera  a  care  for 
the  level  of  the  box,  both  in  quick  exposures  with- 
out a  rest  and  in  time  exposures  with  some  sup- 
port, will  insure  against  the  undesired  effect. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

If  photography  were  confined  to  picture-making 
by  the  direct  or  diffused  light  of  the  sun,  it  would 
miss  many  agreeable  and  important  advantages 
that  it  now  possesses. 

Realizing  how  good  a  thing  it  would  be  to  make 
pictures  by  the  aid  of  light  other  than  that  sup- 
plied by  the  sun,  many  of  the  early  photographers 
experimented  with  oil  light  and  gaslight,  and 
with  other  kinds  of  illumination.  The  earlier 
plates  were  so  "  slow,"  and  gas  and  oil  supplied 
such  a  yellow  light,  that  the  early  experiments 
were  tedious  and  unprofitable.  With  more  sensi- 
tive dry  plates  it  became  an  easy  matter  to  photo- 
graph rooms  by  gaslight.  The  effect  of  pictures 
produced  in  this  way  is  entirely  agreeable,  but  the 
time  required  is  always  a  serious  drawback.  I 
.  remember  photographing  myself  by  gaslight  —  in 
charity  I  was  my  own  first  sitter.  I  sat  for 
twenty -five  minutes,  and  there  is  no  likelihood 
that  I  shall  ever  forget  how  disagreeable  the 
experience  was. 

The  use  of  gaslight  always  has  the  objection 


FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  99 


that  this  illumination  can  be  had  only  where  there 
are  fixtures.  This  is  a  serious  drawback  for  many 
reasons.  But  the  chief  difficulty  with  gaslight  is 
that  it  is  not  white  enough  to  illuminate  with  any- 
thing like  the  brilliancy  of  daylight,  and  it  is 
therefore  not  practicable  for  portraits  or  groups, 
although  large  numbers  of  these,  and  many  of 
them  artistically  beautiful,  have  been  made  with 
this  light. 

It  is  because  they  give  such  a  strong  white 
light  that  electricity  and  magnesium  have  be- 
come so  valuable  to  photography. 

Electric  light  has  been  applied  to  photography 
in  various  ways.  What  is  called  the  voltaic  bat- 
tery has  been  used  with  various  kinds  of  reflectors. 
Light  also  has  been  supplied  from  storage  batter- 
ies. The  best  and  most  convenient  light  is  sup- 
plied from  a  dynamo.  Portrait-making  by  electric 
light  has  by  means  of  the  dynamo  light  become  a 
prosperous  trade  in  many  quarters.  But  the  ama- 
teur photographer  is  not  likely  to  be  in  possession 
of  a  gas  engine  to  run  his  dynamo  ;  and  electric 
light,  unless  the  electric  service  which  is  now 
being  carried  into  so  many  homes  shall  become  a 
much  more  available  medium  than  it  is  at  present, 
need  scarcely  be  counted  among  the  things  the 
amateur  photographer  will  wish  to  consider.  What 
is  often  called  "lime  light,"  that  is  to  say,  oxy- 
hydrogen  light,  is  for  the  same  reason  scarcely 
worth  considering  here.   Cumbersome  apparatus 


100         FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

for  the  production  of  light  is  out  of  the  question 
for  all  but  a  very  few  amateurs. 

Magnesium  light  is  so  easily  produced  that  it 
becomes  a  very  useful  substitute  for  daylight. 
Magnesium,  the  existence  of  which  as  a  metal  was 
discovered  by  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  was  first  used 
for  photographic  purposes  in  the  form  of  com- 
pressed wire  which  was  burned  like  a  fuse.  But 
the  use  of  magnesium  wire  was  found  to  be  dan- 
gerous, pure  magnesium  being  exceedingly  combus- 
tible. "  Magnesium  ribbon  "  has  been  much  used 
since  the  discovery  that  it  is  safer  than  the 
wire  form,  and  that  its  burning  from  one  point  to 
another  on  a  stretched  wire  afforded  an  illumina- 
tion with  the  advantage  (as  in  the  pure  wire  form) 
of  a  soft  light  without  the  hard  shadow  of  a  light 
produced  at  a  single  point.  The  ribbon  is  burned 
across  the  front  of  a  reflector  of  polished  metal  or 
cardboard. 

When  Dr.  Piffard  of  New  York  proposed  the 
use  of  magnesium  in  a  powdered  form  so  as  to 
produce  a  sudden  and  brilliant  white  flash,  photo- 
graphy made  a  very  important  advance.  The 
powder  is  not  used  in  its  pure  form,  but  is  mixed 
with  chlorate  of  potash,  sulphide  of  antimony, 
gunpowder,  gun-cotton  or  pyroxyline,  and  other 
elements.  Crushed  white  sugar  has  been  used 
with  the  chlorate  of  potash.  The  earlier  form  of 
flash  was  produced  by  the  sprinkling  of  the  mag- 
nesium powder  on  gun-cotton.    Later  combina- 


FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  101 

tions  made  it  possible  to  use  magnesium  with 
other  powdered  substances  without  gun-cotton. 
Lamps  have  been  devised  which  permit  the  blow- 
ing of  a  certain  quantity  of  the  powder  through 
an  alcohol  flame.  I  have  used  an  alcohol  lamp 
with  a  tube  and  mouthpiece,  by  which  it  is  pos- 
sible to  produce  a  powder  flame  continuing  for  a 
number  of  seconds  if  necessary. 

The  form  in  which  the  magnesium  should  be 
used  depends  upon  the  work  that  is  demanded  of 
it.  I  have  seen  it  used  in  immense  quantities  — 
a  pound  and  more  at  a  flash.  But  this  was  to 
photograph  great  assemblages  of  people  ;  and  one 
of  the  last  ballroom  pictures  I  have  seen  illus- 
trated the  fact  that  there  was  danger  in  this  whole- 
sale use  of  magnesium,  by  showing  several  people 
with  fire  extinguishers  ready  to  do  service  should 
any  of  the  decorations  of  the  hall  or  other  com- 
bustible accessories  be  accidentally  ignited.  I  do 
not  wish  by  this  allusion  to  frighten  any  one  into 
abandoning  the  use  of  magnesium  in  photography, 
yet  I  am  willing  to  frighten  the  reader  into  a 
proper  caution  in  the  use  of  explosive  materials. 
Magnesium  properly  prepared  and  discreetly  used 
is  not  actually  dangerous.  But  when  one  plays 
with  fire,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  the  proper- 
ties of  fire,  and  to  be  cautious. 

For  ordinary  home  photography  a  compara- 
tively small  quantity  of  the  magnesium  is  needed. 
Whatever  the  quantity  0  however^  it  is  well  to 


102  FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

hold  or  place  the  light  where  there  will  be  no 
chance  of  its  scorching  anything.  For  example, 
it  often  is  necessary  to  ignite  the  powder  at  a 
considerable  height,  from  the  top  of  a  step-ladder 
or  otherwise,  and  then  it  is  incumbent  upon  the 
operator  to  have  regard  to  the  ceiling,  that  it  may 
not  be  singed  or  smoked.  Be  careful  also  of  lace 
curtains  or  draperies  of  any  kind. 

The  hands  of  the  operator  should  be  protected, 
for  even  in  its  safest  form  magnesium  is  apt  to 
throw  out  burning  particles,  which,  because  they 
are  so  small  and  burn  out  so  quickly,  would 
scarcely  ignite  anything,  yet  might  disagreeably 
scorch  the  skin.  Even  when  using  a  safe  lamp 
and  blower  or  other  such  device  (many  improve- 
ments will  be  devised  while  this  is  getting  into 
print)  have  the  hand  holding  or  managing  the 
lamp  covered  with  a  glove  or  handkerchief. 

Having  now  perhaps  sufficiently  impressed  my 
readers  with  the  idea  of  caution  in  the  use  of  mag- 
)  nesium,  I  may  have  something  more  definite  to 
say  as  to  the  practical  application  of  that  useful 
material  to  indoor  photography. 

In  taking  portraits  with  this  light  it  is  neces- 
sary to  decide  at  the  outset  the  precise  point 
where  the  flash  is  to  be  made.  The  sitter  is  then 
posed  accordingly.  To  find  the  effect  of  the 
lighting,  a  lamp  may  be  placed  at  the  point  where 
the  magnesium  is  to  be  burned  —  which  should  be 
at  least  five  feet  from  the  floor  for  a  seated  por- 


FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  103 


trait  —  and  other  lights,  if  there  be  any,  tempo- 
rarily lowered. 

After  a  little  experience  the  photographer  will 
be  able  to  judge  of  the  effect  by  simply  studying 
the  face  and  figure  from  the  point  of  lighting. 
There  is,  however,  always  the  danger  that  the 
lights  of  the  room  may  mislead  the  operator  who 
does  not  make  allowance  for  them  in  planning  his 
effect. 

The  necessity  for  care  in  the  lighting  arises 
chiefly  from  the  fact  that  the  lens  and  the  flash 
are  at  different  points.  The  diagram  (Fig.  16) 
will  suggest  the  proper  positions  of  lens  and  light. 
Probably  the  flash  might  safely  be  made  anywhere 


rush 

Camera 

Fig.  16. 

behind  the  dotted  line,  but  to  avoid  the  possibility 
of  danger  take  the  position  shown  by  the  diagram. 

If  the  light  were  flashed  at  a  point  close  to  the 
lens,  the  picture  would  be  flat  and  without  con- 
trasts. By  sending  the  light  from  a  point  some- 
what above  the  lens,  a  "  down  shadow  "  is  created, 
and  by  moving  the  light  some  distance  to  right  or 
left  a  further  relief  is  afforded. 

What  the  lens  will  see  may  always  be  found  by 


104  FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

placing  the  eyes  as  near  the  lens  as  possible  and 
studying  the  subject  from  that  point.  Again,  by 
looking  at  the  subject  from  the  point  of  lighting, 
it  is  possible  to  see  just  what  and  how  much  will 
be  illuminated.  Comparing  this  with  the  point  of 
view  of  the  lens,  the  operator  will  be  able  to  esti- 
mate the  effect  very  closely. 

To  make  focusing  easier  than  it  will  be  with 
ordinary  indoor  light,  place  a  sheet  of  white  paper 
in  the  lap  of  the  sitter,  or  pin  it  on  the  coat  or 
gown  at  a  point  approximating  the  distance  of  the 
sitter's  eyes  from  the  lens.  It  will  not  be  difficult 
to  focus  on  the  edge  of  the  paper. 

Having  focused  the  camera,  cap  the  lens,  put 
in  the  plate-holder,  and  draw  the  slide.  If  the 
sitter  is  not  accustomed  to  the  flashlight,  describe 
the  effect,  or  perhaps  illustrate  it  with  a  little 
sample  flash,  that  the  subject  may  not  be  startled 
or  blink  the  eyes.  Have  the  eyes  directed  toward 
the  camera  rather  than  in  the  direction  of  the 
light.  If  the  subject  should  be  placed  in  the  atti- 
tude of  reading,  or  of  reverie  at  a  hearth  fire,  there 
would  be  no  occasion  for  worrying  about  the  ex- 
pression of  the  eyes.  Then  light  all  the  lamps  or 
gas  jets  in  the  room,  whether  they  come  within 
range  of  the  lens  or  not.  This  is  to  prevent  any 
startling  change  in  the  quantity  of  light  in  the 
room  which  might  make  it  harder  for  the  sitter  to 
preserve  a  natural  expression. 

When  everything  is  in  readiness  for  the  flash, 


FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  105 

uncap  the  lens,  and  then,  without  undue  haste, — 
for  the  yellow  lights  in  the  room  will  not  injure 
the  plate  in  the  space  of  two  or  three  seconds,  — 
"  blow  or  squeeze  or  touch  off,"  as  the  character 
of  the  flash  implements  may  require.  After  the 
flash  waste  no  time  in  placing  the  cap  on  the  lens. 

It  is  highly  important  that  the  flash  should  be 
made,  not  only  beyond  the  range  of  the  lens,  but 
sufficiently  out  of  range  to  prevent  the  chance 
that  any  of  the  burning  particles,  or  the  illumi- 
nated smoke  of  the  flash,  should  "  fog  "  the  plate. 

In  the  most  interesting  phase  of  flashlight  pho- 
tography, the  taking  of  groups,  the  difficulties 
are  in  some  ways  much  increased.  It  becomes 
necessary  to  watch  very  carefully  the  direction  of 
shadows,  that  the  features  of  one  sitter  shall  not 
be  obscured  by  the  shadow  of  another  sitter's 
head,  and  that  shadows  on  drapery,  etc.,  do  not 
produce  disagreeable  effects.  Formal  groups  will 
require  considerable  preliminary  attention,  and 
will  be  more  certain  of  success  if  a  lamp  is  used 
to  determine  the  effect  of  the  lighting. 

Nothing  in  home  photography  is  more  delight- 
ful in  the  interest  and  amusement  it  gives  at  the 
time  and  in  the  pleasure  it  affords  in  after  years 
than  the  picturing  of  familiar  groupings  in  do- 
mestic life,  in  parlor  and  in  kitchen,  at  the  even- 
ing lamp,  at  the  piano,  and  at  the  Christmas-tree. 
Among  the  thousands  of  negatives  on  my  own 
shelves  there  are  none  that  are  more  precious  to 


106  FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY. 


me  than  those  which  commemorate  the  hearth 
circle  during  a  visit  from  old  friends,  the  arrival 
of  new  toys,  the  fun  of  birthday  nights,  or  some 
comic  tableaux  of  "  bedtime." 

Very  often  the  picture  arranged  with  the  least 
elaborateness  will  be  better  than  one  that  has 
received  much  preliminary  care ;  but  attention  to 
everything  that  usually  requires  attention  will  in 
the  long  run  be  the  better  plan,  even  for  off-hand 
tableaux.  To  make  a  group  of  this  sort  "look 
natural,"  have  each  person  doing  something,  if  it 
be  only  looking  somewhere.  That  is  to  say,  do 
not  leave  any  one  to  look  nowhere  in  particular,  as 
if  waiting  for  you  to  flash  the  light. 

The  magnesium  light  is  of  great  value  in  photo- 
graphing interiors  :  it  gives  softer  contrasts,  and 
pictures  the  room  as  it  is  so  often  seen  —  lighted 
from  within.  There  being  no  difficulty  of  pos- 
sible movement,  as  in  the  case  of  portraits  or 
groups,  a  comparatively  small  stop  may  be  used, 
if  necessary,  and  the  flashes  repeated.  Moreover, 
the  flashes  may  be  given  at  different  points,  so 
as  to  soften  the  shadows,  or  to  throw  light  into 
obscure  angles.  It  is  necessary  to  beware  of  mir- 
rors, which,  if  in  a  position  to  reflect  the  flash  in 
range  of  the  lens,  will  do  the  same  harm  that 
would  come  from  exposing  the  flash  itself  to  the 
lens.  If  possible,  also,  flash  the  light  where  it 
will  not  flare  disagreeably  on  picture  glasses. 

With  a  repeating  lamp  it  is  easy  to  regulate  the 


FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  107 

exposure  and  the  lighting  so  as  to  give  a  desirable 
effect.  Other  flashes  may  be  produced  several 
inches  apart.  In  using  the  flash  from  more  than 
one  point,  remember  the  desirability  of  an  illumi- 
nation that  comes  from  one  general  direction. 
Crossed  shadows  are  unpleasant  where  they  have 
not  an  effect  consistent  with  the  familiar  lighting 
of  the  room. 

Agreeable  pictures  are  sometimes  made  by  using 
the  magnesium  in  a  fireplace,  that  room* and  fig- 
ures may  be  illuminated  as  if  by  firelight.  An 
artist  friend  of  mine  has  produced  very  realistic 
camp-fire  studies  in  this  way.  Of  course  the  flash 
itself  must  be  hidden  by  the  use  of  a  chair  or  a 
silhouetted  figure. 

The  intensity  of  a  flashlight  is  much  increased 
by  the  use  of  a  large  sheet  of  cardboard  or  some 
other  reflector,  slightly  curved,  and  fixed  behind 
the  light  at  a  distance  of  about  eighteen  inches. 
The  quantity  of  powder  and  the  size  of  the  re- 
flector always  depend  upon  the  size  of  the  room 
in  which  they  are  used  and  upon  the  color  of  the 
walls.  If  the  walls  are  white  much  less  magne- 
sium will  be  necessary  than  in  a  room  with  darkly 
colored  walls,  since  the  walls  and  ceiling  them- 
selves act  as  reflectors  in  diffusing  the  light  in  the 
apartment. 

The  magnesium  light,  as  well  as  the  electric 
light,  has  been  used  in  photography  out  of  doors. 
An  excellent  portrait  of  Bartholdi's  Liberty  in 


108  FLASH-LIGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY. 


New  York  Harbor  has  been  produced  at  night 
in  the  light  of  a  big  magnesium  flash.  In  such 
a  case  the  result  is,  however,  more  novel  than 
practical.  The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  a 
great  many  night  pictures  out  of  doors.  Yet  there 
is  often  much  that  is  interesting  in  pictures  of 
public  squares,  buildings,  etc.,  made  by  the  light 
of  their  own  illuminations. 

The  photographing  of  self-luminous  objects  is, 
indeed,  an  attractive  phase  of  picture  -  making. 
Fireworks  displays  are  very  happily  reported  by 
the  camera.  Often  the  negatives  made  from 
such  displays  not  only  exhibit  the  effect  of  the 
different  pieces,  but  convey  an  excellent  impres- 
sion of  the  scene  as  a  whole  in  the  light  of  the 
pyrotechnics. 

Perhaps  there  will  not  be  a  better  place  than 
this  to  speak  of  photographs  of  lightning.  These 
are  best  when  made  at  night,  the  flashes  then  be- 
ing in  greater  relief,  and  the  general  darkness 
permitting  the  exposing  of  a  single  plate  to  the 
action  of  several  flashes.  The  most  fortunate  con- 
ditions for  getting  fine  studies  of  the  electric 
rivers  (for  such  the  quickly  traveling  sparks  ap- 
pear to  be)  are  those  which  include  a  view  of  a 
broad  stretch  of  horizon.  In  a  city  such  a  view 
may  seldom  be  had  save  from  an  upper  window  or 
the  housetop. 


CHAPTER  X. 


RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY. 

In  nature's  gallery  —  in  the  streets,  in  the  fields, 
and  on  the  sea  —  there  is  still  a  problem  of  light- 
ing, but  it  is  very  different  from  the  problem 
which  we  have  to  consider  when  we  photograph 
objects  indoors. 

The  light  now  falls  from  above,  in  an  intense 
flood  at  midday  in  summer,  in  a  yellower  and  less 
actinic  flood  at  midday  in  winter,  and  in  diffused 
rays  when  the  sun  is  obscured.  It  is  necessary 
to  pay  some  attention  to  these  matters  of  quality 
in  light  in  beginning  to  practice  outdoor  photo- 
graphy ;  to  remember  that  the  light  is  brightest 
when  the  sun  is  highest,  and  that  as  the  after- 
noon advances  the  sun's  rays  not  only  become 
less  bright  to  the  eye,  but  by  becoming  yellower 
are  less  suitable  to  photography  than  might  at 
first  be  supposed  from  the  judgment  of  the  eye. 
The  plate  thus  will  require  a  longer  exposure  at 
4  p.  m.  than  at  2  p.  m.,  though  often  on  a  very 
clear  summer  day  in  the  open  country  the  differ- 
ence in  the  actual  working  power  of  sunlight  at 
two  and  at  four  o'clpck  is  extremely  slight. 


110      R AMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY. 

The  difference  in  strength  between  winter  and 
summer  sunlight  is  very  great.  As  the  sun  lies 
lower  in  winter,  its  rays,  as  we  receive  them,  are 
yellower,  and  the  earlier  sunset  greatly  shortens  the 
time  when  photography  is  possible;  yet  winter 
photography  out  of  doors  is  a  delightful  recrea- 
tion. Jack  Frost's  fairyland  is  an  enticing  sub- 
ject. No  painter's  brush  can  suggest  the  infinite 
delicacy  of  the  ice  formations  on  shrub  and  tree. 
The  camera,  when  properly  managed,  catches  every 
glitter  of  the  snow  crust  and  icicle.  Again,  the 
pictures  of  the  snow  house,  the  farm  or  city  park 
draped  in  white  come  with  pictures  of  winter 
sport  —  the  sleighing  party,  the  toboggan,  the 
snowball  battle,  the  skaters'  race. 

But  for  many  reasons  other  than  that  of  the 
better  light,  the  summer  is  particularly  the  photo- 
graphic season  so  far  as  out  of  door  work  is  con- 
cerned. In  summer  the  temperature  is  more  con- 
genial to  the  fingers  that  must  fuss  with  tripod, 
carrying  case,  screws,  focusing  cloth,  and  stops. 
There  is  less  wind  to  bother  the  operator,  and 
better  opportunities  in  selecting  figures  and  inci- 
dents. 

Each  season  has  its  opportunities  and  its  draw- 
backs, and  the  student  of  photography  must  study 
and  consider  both. 

Outdoor  photography  is  practiced  both  with  a 
tripod  camera  and  with  a  hand  camera.  I  shall 
leave  for  another  chapter  some  hints  upon  the  use 


"  MISS  JERRY  " 
From  a  photograph  by  A  lexander  Black 


RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY.  Ill 

of  the  hand  camera.  In  the  present  chapter  we 
shall  talk  about  the  camera  "  on  legs." 

The  camera  which  the  photographer  carries 
out  of  doors  should  be  light,  strong  and  easily 
managed.  It  should  go  into  small  space,  and 
should  be  so  built  as  quickly  to  be  placed  in  readi- 
ness for  operating.  Recent  improvements  in  cam- 
era-making have  been  in  the  direction  of  light- 
ness, and  there  are  many  clever  devices  that  do 
away  with  the  old-fashioned  screws  that  took 
so  much  precious  time  and  so  much  patience  to 
manage. 

In  packing  the  camera  and  implements  form  a 
habit  of  placing  each  article  in  the  carrying  case 
in  precisely  the  same  way  each  time.  By  so  doing 
it  is  possible  to  avoid  the  disagreeable  chance  of 
leaving  something  out  that  should  be  carried  along 
—  the  little  case  of  diaphragms,  for  instance.  A 
place  being  provided  for  everything,  everything  is 
much  more  likely  to  find  its  way  to  a  place.  The 
lens  may  be  carried  in  a  separate  bag  with  a  draw- 
ing string  or  flap,  or  in  a  tightly  fitting  box,  and 
then  stowed  in  a  certain  corner  of  the  carrying 
case.  If  it  is  carried  in  the  camera  by  reversing 
the  front  piece,  it  should  be  carefully  capped  and 
the  reverse  side  protected  in  some  manner  from 
dust  or  chance  of  scratching.  Some  lenses  are 
provided  with  a  sliding  band  that  can  cover  the 
slot  used  for  the  insertion  of  the  diaphragm. 
When  there  is  no  such  wise  provision  it  is  well  to 


112     B AMBLES  IN  NATUBE'S  GALLEBY. 

leave  a  diaphragm  in  the  lens  to  prevent  in  some 
measure  the  entrance  of  dust. 

It  is  a  good  plan  to  have  a  bag  for  the  plate- 
holders,  which  when  safely  covered  in  this  way 
are  in  less  danger  from  sunlight  than  if  exposed 
from  time  to  time  in  the  unpacking  and  setting 
up  of  the  camera. 

In  setting  the  tripod  be  careful  to  give  it  a 
solid  footing  and  to  give  to  the  camera  as  nearly 
as  possible  a  perfect  level,  unless  there  is  some 
special  necessity  for  an  upward  or  downward  aim. 
If  the  wind  is  blowing  strongly  (as  it  b  often  does 
during  work  on  the  seashore  and  the  mountains) 
and  the  tripod  is  slender,  it  is  desirable  to  anchor 
the  apparatus  in  some  way.  Thus  a  string  fas- 
tened to  the  top  plate  of  the  tripod  (perhaps  by 
the  screw  or  lever  under  the  plate)  may  be  at- 
tached to  a  stone  sufficiently  heavy  to  act  as  an 
anchor.  This  will  be  better  than  weights  against 
the  feet  of  the  tripod,  since  it  will  bring  the 
steadying  influence  from  the  centre.  Focusing 
cloths  are  sometimes  made  with  a  gathering  string 
or  an  elastic  band,  by  which  they  are  secured  to 
the  camera.  During  the  exposure  these  coverings, 
which  are  often  of  light  waterproof  cloth,  are  a 
screen  to  the  joint  between  the  plate-holder  and 
the  camera.  In  windy  weather  the  ends  of  the 
focusing  cloth  should  not  be  permitted  to  flutter 
during  the  exposure. 

The  caution  already  offered  as  to  the  necessity 


RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY.  113 


for  removing  the  cap  with  sufficient  care  to  avoid 
the  jarring  of  the  instrument,  applies  to  quick  out- 
door photography  as  well  as  to  operating  indoors. 
The  slightest  tremor  of  the  box  caused  by  care- 
lessly removing  the  cap  will  destroy  the  clearness 
of  the  image  in  some  degree,  and  sometimes  cause 
a  total  failure.  A  gentle  swaying  motion,  as 
on  a  ship's  deck,  will  do  no  perceptible  harm,  pro- 
vided the  exposure  is  quick  enough ;  but  an  os- 
cillation such  as  that  created  by  a  loose  fastening 
to  the  tripod,  or  other  causes  I  have  mentioned, 
must  be  avoided. 

c 

b 


Fig.  17. 

Why  the  movement  of  the  object  to  be  photo- 
graphed does  less  harm  than  the  movement  of 
the  camera,  may  be  explained  by  the  accompany- 
ing diagram.  Taking  a  for  the  lens,  6  for  the 
plate,  and  c  and  d  for  outside  rays  of  light 
crossing  each  other  at  the  lens,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  point  of  intersection  (a)  being  about  four 
fifths  of  the  distance  from  c  and  d  to  the  plate, 
either  of  these  points  might  be  moved  an  inch 


d 


114     B AMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY. 

before  the  points  which  touch  the  plates  would 
move  a  quarter  of  an  inch.  The  reader  may  illus- 
trate this  himself  by  holding  a  stick  between  two 
fingers  near  one  end,  and  moving  the  end  farthest 
from  the  fingers.  Imagine  the  points  c  and  d 
at  a  distance  a  hundred  times  greater  than  that 
between  the  plate  and  the  lens,  and  you  have 
a  suggestion  of  the  range  of  the  lens  at  fifty  feet 
when  the  lens  has  a  six-inch  focus,  as  well  as  an 
illustration  of  slower  movement  on  the  plate  of  a 
ray  coming  from  a  quickly  moving  object. 

Naturally,  then,  the  greater  the  distance  from 
a  moving  object,  the  better  the  chances  of  secur- 
ing a  "  sharp  "  image.  A  person  walking  with 
ordinary  rapidity  might  be  very  difficult  to  photo- 
graph at  a  distance  of  six  feet,  while  at  fifty  feet 
the  camera  can  capture  the  fleetest  runner. 

For  the  reason  that  the  camera  can  often  be 
operated  free  of  the  tripod,  as  well  as  because 
focusing  occupies  much  time,  a  "  finder  "  and  a 
focusing  scale  are  useful  features  of  a  tripod  cam- 
era which  may  be  mentioned  here.  A  finder 
is  a  device  containing  a  small  lens  and  ground 
glass,  which  by  attachment  to  the  top  of  the 
camera  reveals  (approximately)  to  the  operator 
the  field  covered  by  the  lens.  There  are  sim- 
pler devices  giving  the  eye  the  angle  of  the  lens 
(which  may  be  found  by  a  little  experiment), 
such  as  a  piece  of  bent  wire. 

The  focusing  scale  may  be  marked  off  on  the 


RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY. 


115 


sliding  track  of  the  camera  after  a  careful  test 
upon  points  duly  measured  off.  The  distances 
noted  on  the  camera  may  be  many  or  few  as 
the  operator  chooses ;  but  as  the  eye  cannot  more 
than  roughly  estimate  a  distance,  a  few  marks 
will  suffice.  Thus  the  scale  may  be  drawn  as  in 
Fig.  18. 

If  this  scale  is  carefully  made,  and  if  the  cam- 
era works  compactly,  when  the  slide-rest 
of  the  bellows  is  set  at  any  particular 
figure  the  camera  will  be  accurately  in 
focus  for  objects  at  that  distance.  The 
last  mark,  as  the  "  100  "  on  the  figure 
herewith,  should  represent  the  "  universal 
focus  "  of  the  lens  giving  the  best  results 
for  a  general  view  including  distance. 

Selection.  One  of  the  beginner's 
most  probable  mistakes  in  landscape  pho- 
tography is  that  of  trying  to  take  too 
much.  In  seeking  "  views  "  the  beginner 
is  likely  to  reach  out  for  a  wide  range 
of  country  when  he  can  find  points  of 
view  commanding  such  expanses.  The 
simple  but  charming  roadside  spring, 
with  the  bit  of  broken  fence  and  the 
splash  of  wild  flowers,  is  passed  by  for  the  view 
across  the  valley ;  but  the  spring  would  make  a 
picture,  and  the  valley  may  be  a  great  disappoint- 
ment when  printing  time  comes. 

I  do  not  mean  that  the  valley  should  never 


100 

GO 

us 

19 


6 

Fig.  18. 


116     RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY. 

be  photographed.  With  a  plate  of  suitable  size 
and  a  lens  of  good  quality,  great  distances  may 
be  pictured  in  a  manner  to  call  up  much  of  what 
delighted  us  in  the  original  scene.  If  a  broad 
landscape  includes  a  horizon  range  and  much 
remote  detail,  the  photographer  should  seek  to 
frame  in  the  view  with  the  aid  of  foreground  ob- 
jects. Without  near-by  trees,  rocks,  or  figures, 
the  picture  must  lose,  not  only  the  natural  effect 
of  distance  and  perspective,  but  the  beauty  of 
composition  that  goes  to  make  a  picture.  If 
there  is  but  a  single  foreground  object  —  a  bold 
upright  is  always  useful  —  do  not  bring  it  into 
the  centre  of  the  picture,  but  introduce  it  by 
moving  the  camera  to  the  necessary  position,  near 
either  side.  There  are  times  when  no  interest  of 
this  kind  is  offered  by  the  view,  as  when  a  tree- 
less plain  leads  to  the  foot  of  a  row  of  hills.  In 
such  a  case  it  is  necessary  to  be  cautious  in  fixing 
the  horizon  line.  If  the  ground  is  flat  and  un- 
broken in  front,  keep  the  horizon  line  low,  espe- 
cially if  there  are  clouds  to  be  had.  When  there 
is  much  interest  in  the  foreground,  the  strong 
horizontal  line  of  the  picture  may  sometimes  be 
effectively  placed  above  the  middle  of  the  plate. 

Atmosphere  softens  so  much  of  the  distance, 
and  the  predominating  blue  so  strongly  affects 
the  plate,  that  extended  views  are  less  satisfac- 
tory than  pictures  with  a  background,  or  pic- 
tures depending  for  their  interest  on  objects  com- 


CHILD  AND  A  BOOK 
By  F.  A .  H ether ington 


RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY.  11? 

paratively  close  at  hand.  The  principles  which 
should  guide  the  photographer  in  arranging  the 
material  he  selects  are  principles  which  he  will 
be  able  to  study  in  the  pictures  of  great  painters 
and  illustrators.. 

Landscape  Figures.  Whether  a  figure  or 
figures  in  a  landscape  will  be  an  advantage  or 
not,  will  depend  upon  the  purpose  of  the  picture. 
If  the  picture  is  to  convey  an  impression  of  the 
vastness  and  lonesomeness  of  a  scene,  the  absence 
of  any  signs  of  life  will  be  an  advantage.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  farm  scene  is  generally  im- 
proved by  a  glimpse  of  cattle,  of  the  milkmaid,  of 
the  cowboy,  of  the  farm  hand  at  the  hayrick,  or 
of  the  farmer  himself  at  the  bars.  A  picture  of  a 
roadside  spring  is  improved,  perhaps,  by  a  figure 
with  cup  stooping  to  drink.  But  every  figure 
should  be  carefully  introduced,  so  as  to  look  en- 
tirely natural,  and  not  posed,  or  it  is  better  to 
leave  out  such  an  attempt  altogether. 

Landscape  Lenses.  There  are  many  vari- 
eties of  landscape  lenses  especially  designed  for 
landscape  work,  but  a  good  "  all  around  99  lens 
will  be  the  kind  the  amateur  will  usually  be 
found  using.  One  containing  a  fixed  rotary  dia- 
phragm is  useful  in  the  field.  The  new  exposers, 
combining  diaphragm  and  "  shutter,"  are  a  lux- 
ury worth  having. 

Focusing.  Focus  before  putting  in  the  dia- 
phragm.   If  the  interest  is  in  the  general  land- 


118  '  RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY. 

scape,  allow  the  immediate  foreground  to  be  out  of 
focus,  and  focus  upon  the  distant  objects.  If 
the  near  objects  are  the  particular  subject  of  the 
picture,  focus  on  a  point  in  the  midst  of  these,  al- 
ways beyond  rather  than  within  the  line  chosen. 
Of  course  in  the  case  of  a  house  and  its  sur- 
roundings, the  focus  must  be  upon  the  face  of  the 
house,  as  upon  the  face  of  a  person  in  a  por- 
trait, letting  other  objects  and  the  distance  fall 
out  of  focus  as  they  may.  A  background  out  of 
focus  is  often  a  decided  advantage  rather  than 
a  detriment,  since  its  softness  throws  the  ob- 
jects in  focus  into  fuller  and  more  artistic  relief. 
Focusing  is  made  easier,  especially  to  those  whose 
eyes  are  not  keen,  by  the  use  of  a  focusing  glass, 
a  magnifying  lens  set  in  a  short  section  of  tube. 
The  tube,  resting  against  the  ground  glass,  shuts 
out  all  light,  even  without  the  aid  of  a  cloth,  and 
the  magnifier  enlarges  the  section  of  the  lens's 
image  to  such  an  extent  that  it  becomes  quite 
easy  to  focus  accurately.  After  focusing,  put  in 
the  stop. 

Stops.  If  there  are  no  moving  objects  and  no 
wind,  a  small  stop  may  be  used  with  two  or  three 
seconds'  exposure.  If  there  is  movement,  demand- 
ing a  quick  exposure,  the  size  of  the  stop  must 
depend  upon  the  quickness  and  nearness  of  the 
motion,  and  the  amount  of  light.  In  a  city  street, 
even  at  high  noon,  there  is  less  light  than  in  an 
open  field  at  the  same  hour,  less  light  in  an  open 


RAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY.  119 


field  than  on  the  top  of  a  hill,  and  less  even  on 
the  top  of  a  hill  than  on  the  open  sea.  Perhaps  in 
an  instantaneous  exposure  you  will  have  to  work 
with  no  stop  at  all.  Without  a  stop,  the  lens  not 
only  works  less  "  sharply,"  — though  this  will  not 
be  much  of  a  detriment  in  many  pictures,  —  but 
it  does  not  illuminate  such  a  wide  surface,  and  the 
plate,  if  larger  than  the  lens  is  intended  to  cover 
without  a  stop,  will  show  a  dimness  at  the  edges. 
This  is  to  say,  that  while  a  lens  open,  without  a 
stop,  admits  light  more  quickly,  a  lens  with  a 
stop  distributes  the  same  amount  of  light  over 
a  wider  surface  and  more  evenly. 

Portraits  and  Groups.  Outdoor  portraits 
are  in  many  respects  much  easier  to  make  than 
indoor  portraits.  The  lighting  of  the  subject  is 
so  difficult  a  matter,  when  undertaken  at  an  ordi- 
nary window,  that  the  amateur  may  well  be  in- 
clined to  lure  his  sitters  into  some  favoring  corner 
under  the  generous  canopy  of  the  sky,  where  the 
question  of  lighting  is  settled  without  much  labor. 
Here  we  shall  not  get  so  fine  a  quality  of  lighting 
as  when  the  illumination  is  adjusted,  but  the  result 
is  often  all  that  need  be  asked. 

There  are  times  when  figures  may  be  taken  in 
full  sunlight.  Indeed,  the  brilliant  gilding  of  the 
sun  often  gives  a  charm  not  to  be  approached  by 
a  quieter  coloring,  But  this  method  has  many 
risks.  While  sometimes  good  in  compositions,  it 
is  unsafe  for  careful  portraiture,  because  the  face 


120     E AMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY. 


is  generally  thrown  into  dense  shadow  or  lighted 
in  a  patchy,  undesirable  way.  The  nose  has  a 
great  partiality  for  the  sun,  and  will  frequently 
obtrude  itself  in  a  state  of  gorgeous  illumination 
when  the  rest  of  the  face  is  as  dim  as  night.  Thus 
the  sunlight  is  favorable  for  anything  that  is  fan- 
tastic or  picturesque,  rather  than  for  quieter  work 
in  which  a  likeness  is  desirable. 

In  general  it  is  best  to  choose  a  time  when  the 
sun  is  obscured,  or  a  position  out  of  the  direct 
rays,  in  the  shadow  of  a  building  or  other  promi- 
nence. Here  the  light,  reflected  freely  from  the 
sky,  while  not  furnished  by  the  direct  rays,  will  be 
soft  and  diffused.  For  portraits  of  the  full  figure 
the  natural  background  of  the  house  or  of  some 
shrubbery  may  be  acceptable.  Unless  the  back- 
ground is  unobtrusive  or  perhaps  out  of  focus,  it 
may  be  better  to  make  head  portraits  with  a  gray 
background  of  some  sort,  hung  so  as  to  show  no 
texture  lines  or  wrinkles.  The  ideal  background 
for  a  head  is  one  that  does  not  suggest  any  mate- 
rial when  the  print  comes  to  be  made,  but  merely 
appears  as  a  gray  relief  for  the  head. 

It  is  especially  difficult  out  of  doors  to  secure  a 
pleasant  and  natural  expression  of  the  features. 
On  a  bright  day,  even  in  the  shadow,  the  brows  of 
the  sitter  may  be  seen  contracting  under  the  force 
of  the  light.  If  the  light  bothers  the  sitter  per- 
haps some  change  of  position  may  overcome  the 
difficulty,  but  usually  a  reminder  not  to  pucker 
the  brows  will  be  sufficient. 


BAMBLES  IN  NATURE'S  GALLERY.  121 

This  tendency  to  distort  the  face  in  a  strong 
light  makes  outdoor  group  photography  very  try- 
ing. In  a  proper  group  each  individual  should  be 
favorably  taken,  yet  to  do  full  justice  to  all  is  a 
problem  of  much  difficulty.  A  score  of  artistic 
annoyances  intrude  themselves.  Hands  and  feet 
may  be  depended  upon  to  supply  an  inexhaustible 
source  of  trouble  in  group-taking.  Look  carefully 
to  all  the  hands  and  feet,  to  the  direction  of  all 
the  eyes,  and  to  the  arrangement  of  the  clothing 
in  the  case  of  each  member  of  the  group,  before 
making  the  exposure.  The  "last  look,"  at  the 
word  "  Ready ! "  often  detects  a  flaw  that  might 
disfigure  the  result. 

One  of  the  chief  objections  to  outdoor  portrai- 
ture is  the  "  dark  faces  "  of  which  the  sitters  com- 
plain when  prints  are  shown.  To  partly  overcome 
this  drawback  avoid  very  light  backgrounds  or 
accessories,  and  persuade  the  sitters  not  to  wear 
white  outer  clothing.  Neither  very  light  nor  very 
dark  clothing  is  favorable  to  open-air  portraiture. 


CHAPTER  XL 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 

The  hand  camera  is  the  petted  darling  of 
modern  photography.  This  portable  instrument 
was  the  natural  outcome  of  the  invention  of 
"  quick  "  plates  that  permitted  the  taking  of  pic- 
tures at  so  high  a  rate  of  speed  that  an  absolutely 
stationary  camera  became  unnecessary. 

Its  elements  are  a  camera  obscura  or  "  finder," 
and  a  mathematical  focusing  lever,  which  do  away 
with  the  ground  glass  and  head  cloth,  and  an 
automatic  exposer,  which  may  be  liberated  by  a 
trigger.  Freed  from  the  tripod,  carrying  case, 
straps,  and  plate  bag,  the  hand  camera  is  endowed 
for  a  nomadic  life.  It  can  go  everywhere,  and, 
such  is  the  enthusiasm  of  the  modern  amateur, 
it  almost  does. 

There  are  hand  cameras  and  hand  cameras. 
Although  but  a  few  years  have  passed  since  the 
first  instrument  made  its  appearance  at  the  Patent 
Office,  the  multiplication  of  designs  has  been  sur- 
prising —  surprising  in  more  senses  than  one,  for 
not  a  few  of  the  so-called  "  detectives  99  are  very 
clumsy  and  all  but  worthless.    Primarily,  these 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


123 


cameras  are  all  intended  for  use  in  the  hands,  and 
without  a  rest.  They  are  also  more  or  less  dis- 
guised, so  as  to  attract  as  little  suspicion  as 
possible  when  being  used  stealthily.  At  present 
I  can  recall  only  two  or  three  well-disguised  cam- 
eras out  of  the  scores  I  have  inspected.  Unless 
the  disguise  is  complete,  there  is  scarcely  neces- 
sity for  any  at  all.  For  most  uses  there  is  no 
need  for  disguise. 

In  selecting  a  hand  camera,  it  is  just  as  neces- 
sary, as  in  the  case  of  the  tripod  camera,  to 
determine,  in  some  measure  at  least,  the  use  to 
which  it  will  be  devoted.  It  sometimes  seems  as 
if  no  two  people  agree  as  to  what  the  "  detective  " 
was  invented  for.  Some  maintain  that  it  was 
especially  devised  to  capture  the  baby,  who  can 
be  tracked  all  around  the  yard,  and  caught  at 
last  when  expression  and  attitude  are  most  favor- 
able. Certainly  the  hand  camera  is  very  useful 
in  this  direction.  The  baby  does  not  fear  or 
even  notice  the  portable  box,  while  the  camera 
on  legs  often  has  an  appearance  that  is  absolutely 
threatening.  Others  fancy  that  the  "  detective  " 
was  designed  for  picnic  expeditions,  when  no 
sensible  person  wishes  to  add  tripods  and  carry- 
ing cases  to  the  already  considerable  burden  of 
lunch  baskets.  For  his  part,  the  professor  re- 
gards it  as  made  for  scientific  excursions;  and 
Mr.  Banker,  who  carries  it  to  and  from  his  office, 
says  it  is  the  only  kind  of  camera  he  would  be 


124 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


bothered  with.  The  tourist  takes  it  through 
the  capitals  of  Europe,  and  sends  home  in  "  blue 
prints  "  to  his  friends  a  pictorial  history  of  his 
journey. 

I  say  here  and  elsewhere  "  his,"  but  only  be- 
cause the  grammar  of  our  language  makes  the 
word  necessary.  The  amateur  photographer  at 
home  and  abroad  —  yes,  even  in  the  wildest 
passes  of  the  mountain  region  —  is  as  likely  to 
be  "  Miss  "  or  "  Mrs."  as  "  Mr." 

For  what  I  might  call  "free-hand"  outdoor 
work,  a  good  single -lens  camera  answers  very 
well ;  but  of  course  the  limitations  of  a  single  lens 
will  be  just  as  apparent  in  hand-camera  work  as 
in  any  other,  when  the  subject  is  such  as  to  place 
*  a  severe  test  upon  the  instrument.  Whether  the 
lens  be  single  or  double,  it  must  be  quick,  or  it 
cannot  render  good  service  in  a  hand  camera. 
And  here  it  may  be  noted  that  a  lens's  depth 
of  focus  has  much  to  do  with  its  speed.  The 
average  hand  camera  is  fitted  with  a  short-focus, 
wide-angle  lens,  which  has  great  advantages  in 
a  portable  camera.  In  the  first  place,  a  short- 
focus  lens  has  greater  rapidity  than  one  of  long 
focus.  Every  inch  that  the  rays  of  light  have  to 
travel  after  passing  through  the  lens  will  repre- 
sent an  increase  in  the  length  of  time  required 
to  produce  an  impression  on  the  plate.  This 
increase  may  be  so  slight  as  to  be  difficult  to 
measure.    Yet  it  is  an  actual  increase,  and  it  is 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


125 


for  this  reason  that  very  rapid  work  with  a  large 
camera  is  extremely  difficult.  Scientific  work, 
such  as  that  done  by  Mr.  Muybridge  with  the 
horse  in  motion,  is  generally  conducted  with  a 
relatively  small  camera,  and  enlarged  as  may  be 
necessary. 

Again,  the  short-focus  lens  gives  greater  "  depth 
of  focus  "  than  a  lens  of  longer  focus.  I  may 
illustrate  this  by  saying  that  lenses  are  made 
so  short  in  focus  as  to  be  operated  without  spe- 
cial adjustment.  They  have  a  universal  focus, 
and  give  a  sharp  image  at  six  feet  as  well  as  at 
six  hundred.  Other  lenses,  designed  for  special 
classes  of  work,  are  so  long  in  focus  that  if  fo- 
cused on  a  point  fifty  feet  away,  objects  at  either 
forty  or  sixty  feet  will  be  out  of  focus. 

The  defect  of  the  very  short-focus  (wide-angle) 
lens  is  its  exaggeration  of  the  perspective  lines. 
The  defect  of  the  long-focus  (narrow-angle)  lens 
is  that  it  does  not  bring  so  many  objects  in  focus, 
and  does  not  cover  so  wide  a  field.  The  advan- 
tage of  the  short  focus  is  its  rapidity  and  its 
universally  sharp  image.  The  advantage  of  the 
long  focus  is  the  naturalness  of  the  perspective, 
and  its  capacity  for  reproducing  objects  in  good 
size  without  approaching  so  near  as  to  make  the 
speed  of  their  movements  difficult  to  photograph. 
Photographers  of  racing  scenes,  —  walking,  run- 
ning, hurdling,  —  of  football,  and  other  athletic 
contests,  use  a  camera  with  a  comparatively  long 


126 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


focus  and  a  lens  capable  of  very  quick  action. 
With  such  a  camera  the  photographer  may,  for 
instance,  secure  a  rapidly  moving  figure  three 
inches  high  without  approaching  nearer  than 
twenty  feet. 

For  general  hand-camera  work,  with  a  box  giv- 
ing a  4  X  5  inch  picture  and  suitable  for  general 
outdoor  "  sketching "  as  well  as  indoor  studies 
upon  occasion,  I  would  recommend  a  lens  with 
about  a  six -inch  focus.  The  perspective  lines 
produced  by  such  a  lens  will  closely  resemble 
those  drawn  on  the  retina  by  the  human  eye. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  thing  to  learn 
about  the  hand  camera  is  what  it  will  not  do. 
"  Press  the  trigger,"  says  the.  card  of  instruc- 
tion, and  there  you  are.  It  is  very  easy  —  to 
press  the  trigger.  Unfortunately  for  lazy  people 
there  are  a  few  other  little  details  to  be  attended 
to,  and  even  when  everything  is  at  its  best  the 
chances  for  failure  are  numerous.  This  is  an  in- 
ventive age,  and  we  live  in  such  a  very  smart  coun- 
try that  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  we  cannot, 
as  it  were,  "  drop  a  nickel  in  the  slot,"  and  produce 
almost  anything.  The  disappointment  of  discov- 
ering that  to  "  aim  and  fire  "  with  the  camera 
gives  no  assurance  of  a  good  picture,  is  frequently 
great ;  but  it  is  a  wholesome  disappointment,  be- 
cause it  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  photogra- 
phy, even  with  a  patented  box,  is  something  more 
than  the  agitation  of  certain  machinery. 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


127 


Although  the  portable  camera  is  operated  in 
the  hands,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  it 
cannot  safely  be  suddenly  jarred  in  the  operation. 
The  camera  should  be  held  firmly,  especially 
when  the  shutter  is  set  for  a  low  rate  of  speed, 
and  should  not  be  jolted  by  the  pressing  of  the 
trigger.  I  have  seen  dozens  of  plates  successively 
spoiled  by  the  "  punching  "  of  the  button  that  lib- 
erates the  exposing  apparatus.  The  finger  oper- 
ating the  button  should  be  laid  upon  it  firmly, 
and  in  applying  the  pressure  the  box  should  be 
so  held  as  to  resist  any  tendency  to  sudden  move- 
ment that  might  result  from  the  quick  touch  of 
the  "  trigger  finger."  As  I  have  said  already,  a 
swaying  motion  is  quite  safe  when  the  exposer  is 
set  for  high  speed,  so  that  there  is  no  difficulty 
about  following  with  the  eye  the  movement  of  an 
object  on  the  finder  until  the  instant  for  a  favor- 
able exposure  arrives. 

The  expert  operator  naturally  is  able  to  use  a 
much  slower  shutter,  without  danger  to  the  image, 
than  the  beginner  will  find  it  safe  to  adopt.  In 
"  shooting  "  from  a  boat  or  from  a  moving  vehicle, 
hold  the  camera  free  from  the  body,  standing  with 
knees  bent  and  on  the  toes  if  need  be,  so  as  to 
prevent  jolting  movements  from  being  carried  to 
the  box. 

Each  form  of  camera  will  require  its  own  plan 
of  operating  so  far  as  the  mechanical  matters  are 
concerned.     A  plate -holder  camera,  a  camera 


128 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


with  a  back  section  for  taking  in  plate-holders 
and  a  door  for  drawing  the  slide,  requires  one 
method.  A  "  magazine  "  camera,  a  camera  hold- 
ing a  number  of  plates  successively  carried  into 
position  by  certain  mechanism,  calls  for  care  of  a 
different  kind.  Another  form  is  the  "  roll-holder  " 
camera,  with  a  panoramic  film,  turned  piece  by 
piece,  and  permitting  as  high  as  a  hundred  expos- 
ures. In  different  cameras  different  precautions 
are  necessary  as  to  the  exposers.  Some  have  to 
be  set  each  time,  and  the  photographer  must  be 
careful  to  shut  the  front  opening  of  the  box  so  as 
to  avoid  exposing  the  plate  to  light  when  pre- 
paring the  exposer  for  operation.  Some  have 
a  watch-spring  shutter  which  gives  continuous 
exposures  upon  pressure  of  the  button.  Others 
have  "  setters  "  that  do  not  move  the  shutter,  and 
consequently  do  not  endanger  the  plate  in  case 
plate-holders  are  in  use  and  the  slide  has  been 
drawn. 

Whatever  the  variety  of  camera,  form  a  par- 
ticular habit  in  operating,  so  that,  in  a  hurried 
moment,  the  hands  will  follow  the  necessary 
movements,  without  a  thought  for  each.  Have  a 
rigid  rule  with  regard  to  plate-holders,  that  no 
confusion  may  arise  as  to  which  contains  exposed 
and  which  unexposed  plates.  In  the  case  of  a 
roll-holder,  adopt  the  habit  of  turning  the  roll  to 
the  next  notch  immediately  after  each  exposure. 

If  these  good  habits  are  not  adopted,  there  will 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


129 


be  many  moments  of  doubt  and  annoyance, 
many  "  blanks,"  and  —  worse  still,  because  of  the 
greater  loss — many  "  doubles  ;  "  for  hand-camera 
photography  is  often  decidedly  exciting.  There 
is  a  demand  for  quick  thinking  and  quick  action, 
and  the  chances  of  accident  are  proportionately 
great. 

Negatives  made  with  the  hand  camera,  being 
generally  products  of  a  short  exposure,  are  more 
likely  to  be  under-exposed  than  negatives  made 
with  the  tripod  camera.  It  often  seems  to  be 
necessary  to  remind  the  beginner  with  the  hand 
camera  that  there  is  really  nothing  magical  about 
its  power,  and  that  it  will  no  more  make  pictures 
without  light  than  without  a  lens.  The  portable 
instrument  is  so  often  spoken  of  as  an  "  instanta- 
neous camera  "  that  it  is  quite  easy  to  discover 
that  there  is  some  theory  of  superior  speed  in  the 
contrivance.  The  basis  of  the  rapid  action  being 
in  the  lens  and  the  sensitive  plate,  the  form  of  the 
camera  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  capacity  for 
quickness. 

Do  not,  then,  expect  the  hand  camera  to  per- 
form marvels,  to  take  pictures  when  or  where 
there  is  not  sufficient  light.  Do  not  set  the  ex- 
poser  for  a  high  speed  when  there  is  little  light  and 
little  movement.    Give  the  plate  a  fair  chance. 

Until  he  has  had  much  experience  the  photo- 
grapher will  be  dependent  upon  the  "  finder  "  in 
taking  aim.    If  he  has  the  knack  of  becoming  a 


130 


THE  HAND  CAMERA. 


good  camera  marksman,  lie  will  be  able  after  a 
time  to  shoot  without  the  guidance  of  the  finder, 
as  the  good  pistol  marksman  does  without  glan- 
cing at  the  "  sight." 

The  "detective"  is  a  very  companionable  affair. 
It  is  such  a  good  traveler  that  it  continually  re- 
ceives preferences.  It  goes  to  the  presidential 
inauguration ;  it  goes  to  the  county  fair ;  it 
goes  to  the  garden  party ;  it  goes  in  and  out  of 
the  crowded  "  quarters  "  of  the  great  cities,  and 
up  the  peak  of  Chocorua.  It  is  a  kind  of  in- 
stantaneous notebook,  in  which  is  being  taken 
down  all  the  outdoor  happenings  of  the  world. 
The  enthusiast  who  long  has  made  it  his  com- 
panion, who  has  learned  to  trust  and  to  feel  a 
kind  of  affection  for  it,  is  inclined  to  paraphrase 
a  familiar  saying  and  maintain  that  a  camera  in 
the  hand  is  worth  two  on  legs. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE  NEGATIVE. 

In  an  earlier  chapter  we  saw  how  the  action  of 
light  upon  certain  forms  of  silver  permits  the  sub- 
sequent darkening  of  the  substances  affected  by 
the  light.  There  is  no  occasion  here  to  explain 
in  detail  precisely  what  chemical  action  takes 
place  when  the  "  developer  "  follows  up  the  action 
of  sunlight.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  chemical 
action  never  has  been  fully  determined  by  the 
chemists.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  explain  in  a 
general  way  what  the  sensitive  surface  undergoes 
in  the  making  of  a  negative. 

The  oxidization  or  decomposition  or  other  action 
in  the  film  of  the  plate  resulting  from  the  expos- 
ure to  light  gives  no  sign  discernible  to  the  eye 
until  the  sensitive  surface  has  been  treated  with 
a  "developer."  The  image  before  development 
is  spoken  of  as  "latent."  The  sun  has  done  its 
work,  and  nothing  in  chemistry  sounded  more 
marvelous  than  the  claim  (now  disputed)  of  these 
myriad  molecules  set  in  new  motion  by  the 
sun,  and  remaining  in  this  action  for  months  and 
years  perhaps,  until  the  touch  of  a  developing 


132 


THE  NEGATIVE. 


agent  darkens  the  places  where  they  have  been 
quivering. 

Thus,  while  we  speak  of  the  plate  as  remaining 
white  after  the  exposure  and  until  the  develop- 
ment, the  plate  really  has  undergone  a  change  in 
the  parts  touched  by  the  light  and  in  proportion 
to  the  intensity  of  the  light.  After  the  developer 
has  acted  upon  the  plate,  the  precipitated  silver  in 
the  emulsion  of  the  plate  is  found  to  have  been 
reduced  to  a  metallic  state  wherever  it  has  had 
the  combined  action  of  the  light  and  the  chemicals 
used  in  completing  that  action. 

Every  other  process  at  which  we  have  glanced, 
every  precaution  as  to  light  and  length  of  exposure, 
comes  into  court  for  judgment  when  the  plate  is 
covered  with  the  developer.  The  action  of  the 
plate  surface  in  the  developer  is  not  an  absolute 
test  of  the  correctness  of  the  exposure.  Before 
this  could  be  so  we  should  have  to  know  positively 
that  the  coating  of  the  plate,  which  we  have  bought 
in  a  package  of  a  dozen,  had  been  properly  done, 
with  the  right  ingredients,  without  accident  of 
any  kind,  and  that  the  plate  had  been  free  from 
any  injurious  influences  of  heat,  cold,  or  dampness 
in  the  mean  time.  We  should  require  to  know 
also,  what  is  almost  as  difficult  to  know,  that  the 
chemical  ingredients  of  the  developer  were  above 
reproach,  and  that  the  water  in  which  they  were 
mixed  was  absolutely  pure.  All  these  things,  I 
need  hardly  say,  are  not  easily  known. 


THE  NEGATIVE, 


133 


Yet,  having  made  every  effort  to  get  good 
plates  and  having  taken  every  reasonable  care 
with  the  chemicals  of  the  developer,  we  shall  be 
able  to  say  that  the  conduct  of  the  plate  in  the 
developer  generally  represents  the  success  or  want 
of  success  with  which  it  has  been  exposed  in  the 
camera.  If  it  has  been  exposed  too  short  a  time, 
only  the  "  high  lights,"  such  as  the  sky  in  a  land- 
scape, the  glitter  on  light  objects  in  a  room,  the 
white  of  the  face  or  linen  in  a  portrait,  will 
appear,  if  the  exposure  has  not  been  so  short  that 
nothing  at  all  appears.  If  it  has  been  exposed 
too  long  a  time,  the  contrasts  will  be  destroyed 
by  the  darkening  of  the  plate  where  it  should  re- 
main clear.  A  properly  exposed  negative  is  one 
which,  having  been  exposed  with  the  ultimate 
picture  and  the  possibilities  of  the  developer  in 
mind,  shows,  when  developed,  dark  places  of  suffi- 
cient opacity  to  insure  the  necessary  high  lights  of 
the  picture,  and  sufficient  transparency  at  other 
points  to  insure  the  passage  of  light  in  printing 
the  dark  parts  of  the  print  or  "  positive." 

As  I  have  suggested,  the  action  of  the  developer, 
and  the  particular  developer  to  be  used,  are  calcu- 
lated, or  should  be  calculated,  in  making  the  expos- 
ure. If  selection  and  arrangement  require  artistic 
judgment,  the  determination  of  the  length  of  ex- 
posure is  the  severest  test  of  scientific  judgment. 

But  although  the  lighting  and  the  length  of 
the  exposure  determine  to  a  great  extent  the  fate 


134 


THE  NEGATIVE. 


of  the  negative,  much  may  be  done  in  the  devel- 
opment to  remedy  errors  in  the  exposure,  unless 
these  errors  be  too  grave.  Every  photographer 
seeks  to  make  the  exposure  conform  to  the  powers 
of  his  developer  and  the  requirements  of  the  print 
he  wishes  to  make ;  but  if  from  accident  or  the 
impossibility  of  giving  longer  exposure  at  the  time 
the  plate  is  exposed,  the  plate  has  not  received  as 
strong  an  impression  as  it  should  have  had,  the 
operator  seeks  to  coax  out  the  image  by  the  mod- 
ification of  the  developing  formula  in  some  man- 
ner. In  general  development  is  continued  longer 
for  under-exposure.  Modification  again  becomes 
necessary  in  case  the  light  impression  upon  the 
plate  has  been  excessive.  The  change  in  the  ele- 
ments of  the  developer  is  a  change  differing  from 
that  made  necessary  by  the  other  difficulty,  but  in 
the  instance  of  either  defect  in  the  exposure  — 
too  much  or  too  little  —  the  development  is  likely 
to  occupy  a  longer  time  than  if  the  exposure  had 
been  in  full  harmony  with  the  developer. 

The  theory  by  which  a  negative  is  produced  is 
that  the  chemical  action  shall  darken  the  parts 
affected  by  the  light.  If  chemicals  were  used  to 
darken  the  parts  unaffected  by  the  light,  it  will  be 
seen  that  a  positive  would  be  produced.  In  dry- 
plate  photography  the  developer  used  is  what  is 
known  as  an  alkaline  developer,  because  only  an 
alkaline  chemical  agent  will  "  reduce  "  the  silver. 

There  are  many  of  these  alkaline  developers, 


THE  NEGATIVE. 


135 


some  of  which  we  shall  consider  a  little  farther 
on.  Whichever  is  used,  the  image  is  brought  out 
to  the  best  possible  advantage,  and  is  then  placed 
in  a  "  fixing  bath,"  to  which  I  shall  hereafter  give 
the  familiar  name  of  the  "  fixer."  The  office  of 
the  fixer  is  to  remove  from  the  plate  the  silver 
salts  that  have  not  been  acted  on  by  the  light  and 
the  developer  and  thus  to  prevent  their  being  fur- 
ther influenced  by  light. 

After  the  fixing  the  plate  is  thoroughly  washed, 
in  running  water  preferably,  and  dried.  It  is 
then  a  completed  negative,  save  for  such  "  re- 
touching "  as  it  may  receive. 

Retouching,  so-called,  is  the  correction,  by  the 
use  of  pencil  or  brush  and  coloring  matter,  of 
such  defects,  artistic  or  physical,  as  may  be  cor- 
rected in  this  way.  Most  photographic  portraits 
as  sent  out  from  the  mercantile  photographer's 
gallery  are  carefully  retouched  in  every  detail 
when  the  photographer  thinks  he  can  effect  an 
improvement. 

The  negative  thus  produced,  after  being  ex- 
posed to  the  light  in  one  dark  chamber,  is  sub- 
jected to  the  action  of  the  developer  in  another 
dark  chamber  —  the  photographer's  "dark-room," 
at  which  we  shall  look  for  a  moment  before  going 
more  deeply  into  the  matter  of  developing  the 
image. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 

If  the  amateur  photographer  seldom  is  able  to 
enjoy  the  luxury  of  a  skylight  operating-room,  a 
dark-room  is  not  so  rare.  The  dark-room  may  be 
small,  and  generally  is  small.  The  many  amateurs 
who  have  quarters  that  are  wholly  devoted  to  the 
chemical  part  of  photography  have  the  opportu- 
nity to  make  their  work  easy  or  difficult  in  those 
many  respects  where  cleanliness,  order,  and  exact- 
ness affect  the  result.  Those  who  are  unable  to 
secure  a  "  den  "  which  may  be  devoted  to  photo- 
graphy are  under  a  still  greater  necessity  to  be 
orderly  and  precise  in  the  arrangement  of  their 
)  work. 

A  room  given  up  to  developing  should,  of 
course,  have  running  water.  In  a  city  house  run- 
ning water  may  sometimes  be  easily  placed  in  a 
room  where  there  is  no  such  convenience;  but 
under  certain  sanitary  regulations  and  the  neces- 
sity of  a  vent  pipe  to  the  roof  from  the  trap  of 
the  waste  pipe,  this  often  may  necessitate  much 
plumbing.  In  a  country  house  a  pipe  from  a 
rain-water  tank  often  solves  the  problem. 


THE  DARK-ROOM.  137 

However,  under  any  circumstances  a  shelf  tank 
may  always  be  placed  in  the  room  where  the  de- 
veloping is  to  be  done.  A  tap  from  this  may  lead 
to  the  developing  sink. 

The  developing  sink  should  if  possible  be  long 
enough  to  have  two  taps,  with  one  waste  pipe. 
One  tap  does  service  during  the  development  in 
mixing,  diluting,  rinsing  the  plate,  etc.  The  other 
may  be  supplied  with  a  tube  leading  to  the  wash- 
ing box.  The  sink  should  be  fitted  with  a  wooden 
tray  made  of  narrow  strips  of  wood  extending  the 
full  length,  and  resting  on  the  ends  of  the  sink  if 
desired,  and  bound  together  by  two  underneath 
cross-strips.  This  tray  frame  holds  the  develop- 
ing trays  during  the  development,  and  drains  off 
all  that  may  be  spilled  or  spattered.  The  nose  of 
the  tap  should  be  high  enough  above  this  tray  to 
permit  the  standing  of  a  tall  graduate  or  a  quart 
bottle  underneath.  If  there  is  a  heavy  pressure 
of  water  a  cloth  pocket  may  be  tied  to  the  tap« 
This  will  take  the  sprightliness  out  of  the  stream  ; 
and  while  it  will  permit  the  plate  in  the  develop- 
ing tray  to  be  pushed  under  it  for  washing,  the 
pocket  may  be  slipped  into  the  top  of  a  graduate 
or  bottle. 

The  working  light  of  the  dark-room  must  be 
non-actinic,  and  for  this  reason  such  light  as  can 
be  used  is  transmitted  through  ruby  or  ruby  and 
orange  glass.  This  light  may  be  furnished  by 
gas,  by  an  ordinary  oil  lamp  placed  outside  of  a 


138 


THE  DARK-BOOM. 


red  glass  partition  window,  or  by  a  special  devel- 
oping lantern.  The  most  convenient  form  of  light 
may  be  had  when  the  developing-room  is  parti- 
tioned off  from  a  large  apartment.  In  this  case 
a  square  window  is  cut  on  a  level  with  the  top  of 
the  sink,  and  just  back  of  the  place  where  the  tray 
will  rest  during  development.  The  window  may 
be  made  of  two  thicknesses  of  ruby  glass  with  a 
sheet  of  orange  glass  between,  or  it  may  be  made 
with  one  sheet  of  ruby  and  one  of  orange,  accord- 
ing to  the  thickness  of  the  glass  and  the  amount 
of  light  in  the  outer  room  during  the  day.  Some 
photographers  have  a  double  window ;  others  have 
the  window  frames  made  so  that  any  combination 
of  glass  may  be  slid  into  place  ;  many  more  have 
a  shade  curtain  of  red  material  that  may  be  rolled 
down  like  a  window  shade  at  the  outset  of  the  de- 
veloping when  the  fresh  plate  is  brought  into  the 
red  light.  This  shade  or  something  equivalent  to 
it  is  quite  necessary,  as  the  plate  must  be  guarded 
from  even  strong  ruby  light  until  it  has  been  for 
a  minute  or  two  in  the  developer. 

The  window,  which  should  be  hinged  at  the 
top  and  open  upward  out  of  the  way,  and  have  a 
hook  to  hold  it  up  when  daylight  or  full  white 
light  is  wanted,  should  have  a  shelf  outside  if  an 
oil  lamp  is  used,  or  a  gas  jet  if  this  is  to  be  had. 
The  great  advantage  of  the  gas  is  that  the  regu- 
lating key  can  be  placed  on  the  inner  side  of  the 
partition  and  the  flame  so  raised  and  lowered  that 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 


139 


no  shade  or  other  precautionary  arrangement  will 
be  needed  at  the  window.  I  have  known  ingen- 
ious amateurs  to  arrange  levers,  wheels,  etc.,  for 
regulating  a  lamp  flame  from  within  the  partition. 

An  economy  in  light  may  be  practiced  by  fixing 
to  the  partition  on  the  outside  of  the  window  a 
semicircular  reflecting  screen  of  tin  or  cardboard, 
inclosing  the  light. 

If  there  is  no  partition  which  may  be  used  in 
this  way,  it  may  not  be  easy  to  have  the  light 
back  of  the  sink.  In  this  case  it  may  be  placed 
at  one  end  of  the  sink.  The  height  of  luxury  is 
to  have  a  movable  incandescent  electric  light  in 
ruby  bulb,  with  red  cloth  screen,  which  may  be 
moved  from  place  to  place.  However,  a  broad 
window,  backed  by  a  reflector,  has  the  advantage 
of  permitting  the  operator  to  examine  a  large 
plate  with  readiness  by  holding  it  up  between  the 
eyes  and  the  broad  field  of  light. 

Somewhat  the  same  effect  in  a  portable  light 
may  be  had  from  a  box  about  12  inches  wide, 
about  the  same  depth,  and  15  or  18  inches  high. 
Taking  an  ordinary  box  and  standing  it  on  end, 
the  open  side  upon  which  the  cover  has  been  may 
be  grooved  for  two  thicknesses  at  least  of  non- 
actinic  glass,  say  a  deep  ruby  and  an  orange.  A 
part  of  one  side  may  be  hinged  to  admit  of  put- 
ting in  and  taking  out  a  small  lamp,  and  the  top 
must  be  ventilated  by  some  method  that  will  not 
throw  out  direct  rays  of  the  lamplight. 


140 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 


The  ruby  lanterns  sold  in  the  shops  are  to  be 
looked  upon  with  great  suspicion.  Good  lanterns 
are  sold,  but  in  many  of  the  cheaper  varieties  the 
glass  is  often  of  a  kind  to  result  in  "  fogging  " 
the  plates  during  developing.  A  careful  operator 
always  gives  himself  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  by 
having  a  light  unnecessarily  dim  rather  than  one 
that  endangers  his  plate.  A  convenient  safety 
screen  for  a  small  lantern  may  be  made  of  yellow 
paper  in  the  form  of  a  Chinese  lantern.  This  may 
readily  be  lifted  out  of  the  way  after  the  develop- 
ment is  well  started. 

To  test  the  safety  of  a  light,  place  an  unexposed 
plate  in  a  holder.  Draw  the  slide  covering  the 
plate  half  way  out,  then  place  the  holder  about  a 
foot  from  the  light,  so  that  the  exposed  part  of  the 
plate  may  receive  the  full  force  of  the  rays.  At 
the  end  of  ten  minutes  the  immersion  of  the  plate 
in  the  developer  will  reveal  the  extent  to  which 
the  light  has  affected  the  exposed  part  of  the 
plate.  Even  a  safe  light  will  influence  a  highly 
sensitive  plate  under  these  circumstances  ;  but  if 
the  impression  is  pronounced,  the  light  is  too 
strong  to  be  used  while  transferring  the  plate  to 
the  developer  and  during  the  early  stages  of 
developing. 

In  a  well-appointed  dark-room  a  broad  shelf 
should  extend  from  each  side  of  the  sink ;  in  fact, 
on  three  sides  of  the  room,  if  possible,  at  about  the 
level  of  an  ordinary  table.    A  few  deep  drawers 


URCTLLA 

From  a  photograph  by  Charles  J.  Damp/ 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 


141 


are  useful,  and  a  dark  box  or  closet  is  valuable  as 
a  means  of  keeping  plates  that  have  been  removed 
from  holders  or  magazine  before  developing. 

Just  over  the  sink,  or  convenient  to  the  right 
or  left  hand  of  the  operator,  should  be  a  shelf  for 
the  chemicals  used  in  developing,  fixing,  etc.,  not 
to  mention  other  processes,  such  as  toning  prints, 
which  we  shall  consider  later  on.  In  fact,  there 
should  be  plenty  of  shelf  room  over  the  sink  and 
table  shelf.  The  chemical  solutions  should  be 
kept  in  wide-necked  stopper-bottles,  all  carefully 
rinsed  with  hot  water  before  being  drained  for 
use.  Each  of  these  bottles  should  be  carefully  la- 
beled, the  label  being  printed  in  large,  conspicuous 
letters  such  as  may  easily  be  read  in  a  dim  light. 
If  the  bottles  are  not  all  of  the  same  size,  they  will 
be  more  easily  recognized,  and  there  will  be  less 
danger  of  confusion,  a  distinctive  shape  being  a 
great  help  to  the  label.  Moreover,  they  should 
each  stand  always  in  the  same  spot. 

The  chemicals  not  in  solution,  the  unmixed  in- 
gredients, liquid  and  elsewise,  should  be  kept  on 
shelves  convenient  to  operations  at  the  sink.  If 
there  is  a  gas  jet  in  the  room,  have  the  chemicals 
ranged  where  the  light  will  fall  upon  them.  The 
glass  graduates,  always  scrupulously  clean,  should 
be  kept  in  a  rack,  perhaps  one  cut  to  hold  them 
by  the  foot-piece,  head  down.  A  very  simple 
weighing  apparatus  will  be  sufficient  for  ordinary 
purposes,  but  one  having  a  good  set  of  weights 


142 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 


and  broad  and  well-hung  receptacles  is  always 
worth  having  if  possible. 

What  is  said  here  of  a  room  used  as  a  dark 
room  will  apply  very  largely  to  a  room  occupied  in- 
cidentally for  photography.  In  city  houses  a  bath- 
room is  very  often  used  for  photographic  purposes. 
In  such  a  case,  or  in  any  where  the  room  is  not 
private  to  the  photographer,  the  chemicals  should 
be  kept  under  lock  and  key.  Many  deadly  poi- 
sons being  used  in  various  processes,  there  never 
should  be  any  danger  that  a  person  ignorant  of 
their  character  might  come  in  contact  with  them ; 
and  not  only  is  there  danger  from  ignorant  or 
careless  handling,  but  from  special  mistakes.  It 
thus  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  photogra- 
pher's chemical  stock  be  well  guarded,  and  that  for 
his  own  good  the  photographer  look  well  to  his 
labels.  Label  everything,  and  label  in  large,  clear 
letters. 

In  small  quarters,  a  portable  table  may  some- 
times be  arranged  by  hanging  a  board  to  wain- 
scoting or  sink.  Other  folding  appliances  01 
arrangements,  by  which  shelves  are  set  into 
grooves,  will  add  to  the  impromptu  conveniences. 
The  advantage  of  having  these  matters  method- 
ically arranged,  so  that  little  time  is  lost  either 
in  preparing  for  work  or  in  clearing  up  after 
the  work  is  done,  is  that  the  home  photogra- 
pher will  not  be  frightened  off,  or  discouraged 
from  using  a  half  hour  of  spare  time,  by  the 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 


143 


thought  that  much  time  must  be  given  up  to 
the  merely  preliminary  "  fussing,"  or  to  the  after- 
work. 

As  I  have  suggested,  everything  about  a  dark 
room  should  be  kept  scrupulously  clean.  It  is 
necessary  (for  the  beginner  at  least)  to  do  as 
little  guessing  as  possible,  and  in  the  same  degree 
it  is  necessary  for  everything  to  be  kept  so  clean 
that  the  operator  shall  never  be  in  any  doubt  as 
to  the  freedom  of  each  chemical  element  from 
contamination  by  any  other  element. 

A  good  general  rule  toward  cleanliness  is  to 
arrange  matters  so  that  there  may  be  as  little  as 
possible  of  dust  accumulation.  To  this  end,  every- 
thing that  may  be  kept  in  tight  table  drawers  or 
closets  should  be  so  guarded.  The  bottles  contain- 
ing the  developing  •  solutions  may  be  stored  on  a 
boxed  shelf,  with  a  front  lid  hinged  at  the  top, 
which  when  opened  and  hooked  reveals  the  line 
of  bottles  free  of  dust.  If  this  cannot  be  done, 
wipe  the  necks  of  the  bottles  carefully  before 
pouring  from  them. 

Upon  a  convenient  nail  in  the  dark  room  should 
hang  a  broad  camel's-hair  brush,  to  be  used  in  dust- 
ing off  plates  before  they  are  placed  in  holders. 
Specks  of  dust  on  the  plate,  if  not  disturbed,  will 
result  in  minute  white  spots  in  the  negative,  which 
are  sometimes,  though  misleadingly,  called  "  pin- 
holes." The  same  brush  (itself  kept  out  of  the 
dust)  should  be  used  after  the  exposure  when  the 


144 


THE  DARK-BOOM. 


plate  is  taken  out  and  about  to  be  placed  in  the 
developer.  Near  the  tap  may  hang  another 
camel' s-hair  brush,  to  be  used  in  clearing  the 
surface  of  the  plate  after  the  developing  and  be- 
fore placing  in  the  fixer.  Sometimes  sediment- 
ary deposits  form  on  the  plate  during  the  develop- 
ment, not  to  mention  dust  particles  falling  in  the 
room  itself,  and  the  ordinary  washing  under  the 
tap  may  not  sufficiently  dislodge  these,  unless 
the  brush  is  used  while  the  water  of  the  tap  is 
running  over  the  plate. 

The  fixing  tray  —  or  box,  if  a  grooved  recep- 
tacle is  used  —  should  be  sufficiently  far  from 
the  developing  tray  to  prevent  the  possibility 
of  any  spattering  of  "  hypo "  getting  into  the 
developer. 

If  a  regular  washing-box  is  used,  the  running 
water  will  enter,  and  be  drained  from  it  by  tubes. 
The  amateur  may  readily  construct  a  washing- 
box,  by  taking,  for  instance,  a  tin  cracker-box,  and 
fixing,  or  having  a  tinsmith  fix,  a  drain  tap  at  the 
bottom.  If  running  water  can  be  had,  a  rubber 
tube  may  be  lowered  into  the  box  from  the  top, 
and  extend  to  a  point  somewhere  below  the  mid- 
dle, perhaps,  and  another  tube  will  carry  away 
the  water  from  the  drain  opening  to  the  sink.  If 
it  is  not  convenient  to  have  running  water  enter 
the  box,  the  drain  opening  may  be  corked,  and  the 
water  occasionally  drained  off.  A  wooden  frame 
may  be  constructed  to  snugly  fit  this  box,  with 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 


145 


side  grooves,  permitting  the  plates  to  stand  on 
end  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  apart,  and  keep- 
ing them  about  an  inch  above  the  bottom. 

The  difficulty  with  a  tin  box  is  that  it  will 
rust,  if  not  scrupulously  dried  after  use.  Zinc 
is  better  material,  if  such  a  box  can  be  secured. 
Wooden  boxes  are  often  used,  without  the  metal 
outer  box.  The  advantage  of  an  interior  frame, 
whether  of  metal  or  wood,  is  that  after  the  plates 
have  been  sufficiently  washed,  they  may  be  lifted 
out  in  the  frame,  and  so  left  to  dry,  without  dan- 
ger of  scratching  or  falling. 

Developing  trays  should  be  shallow,  unless  they 
are  larger  than  8  X  10  inches.  There  should  be 
one  tray  at  least  for  the  smallest  plates  that  are 
used,  say  4x5  inch  plates.  A  tray  just  large 
enough  for  the  plate  used  has  the  advantage  of 
not  wasting  developer.  When  the  operator  has 
the  necessary  experience  and  is  sure  of  himself 
and  his  plates,  he  may  develop  four  or  six  plates 
in  one  tray  at  one  time  if  he  chooses. 

The  fixing  tray  and  trays  afterward  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  instructions  for  printing,  etc.,  may 
be  deep  trays.  The  fixing  trays  should  be  large 
enough  to  hold  at  least  two  plates  of  the  size  of 
those  that  are  being  developed.  Better  than  this 
is  to  have  a  tray  capable  of  holding  at  least  four 
plates. 

The  dark-room  door  should  have  a  convenient 
inside  catch  which  should  never  be  unfastened  at 


146 


THE  DARK-ROOM. 


any  time  when  white  light  would  injure  the  plate 
or  plates  that  may  be  exposed.  Never  trust  to 
the  caution  of  those  who  may  have  the  privilege  of 
paying  you  a  visit.  They  may  think  your  plates 
are  not  exposed  at  the  time,  or  that  you  are  "  not 
doing  anything  in  particular,"  and  the  safest 
way  is  the  best.  If  you  wish  to  admit  any  one 
during  the  development,  or  to  leave  the  room 
yourself  for  a  moment,  place  a  cover  over  the 
developing  dish.  After  the  plate  has  been  a 
minute  or  more  in  the  fixer,  there  is  no  longer 
special  need  to  keep  the  door  closed.  Naturally, 
if  only  a  faint  white  light  is  admitted  by  opening 
the  entrance  door,  there  is  much  less  need  of  being 
cautious  than  there  would  be  if  a  strong  light 
might  enter.  Lamp  or  gas  light  from  a  neigh- 
boring room  will  not  be  bright  enough  to  be 
worth  guarding  against,  even  while  the  plate  is 
in  the  developer,  if  the  door  is  only  opened  for 
a  moment. 

Thus,  in  making  the  dark-room  sufficiently 
dark  it  is  well  to  consider  the  kind  of  light  that 
may  enter.  Daylight  must  be  carefully  kept  out ; 
and  the  photographer  must  remember  that  a  pin- 
hole admitting  direct  light  is  more  dangerous 
than  a  larger  opening  admitting  fainter  reflected 
light.  To  get  the  room  dark  enough  in  the  day- 
time, it  may  be  necessary  to  tack  cloth  or  wooden 
strips  on  door  or  window  cracks ;  but  at  night  all 
of  these  difficulties  are  much  simplified.   An  ordi- 


THE  BARK-ROOM. 


147 


nary  thick  shade  will  be  enough  at  the  window, 
unless  the  window  opens  on  an  electric-lighted 
street,  and  the  lamp  or  gas  light  creeping  under 
the  door  will  not  do  any  damage  unless  the  plates 
are  unduly  exposed  to  it. 

The  temperature  of  the  dark-room  and  its 
chemical  contents  is  of  much  importance.  Sensi- 
tive films  must  not  be  overheated  or  they  will  frill, 
and  in  summer  the  developer  and  fixer  must  be 
cool;  but  neither  must  the  dark-room  be  cold. 
When  solutions  fall  below  a  certain  point  in  tem- 
perature they  work  poorly,  and  if  very  cold  go 
wrong  altogether.  This  point  is  variously  fixed, 
but  it  may  be  safely  set  down  that  solutions  should 
be  kept  in  a  temperature  agreeable  to  the  body, 
or  perhaps  slightly  below  this  ;  roughly  speaking, 
in  a  room  warmed  to  between  60  and  65  degrees. 
If  the  room  has  been  much  colder  than  this,  care 
should  be  taken  to  slightly  warm  the  solutions  by 
placing  them  in  a  warmer  place  for  some  time 
before  developing  begins. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 

Every  package  of  dry  plates  is  accompanied 
by  a  printed  formula  for  developing  and  fixing, 
and  generally  with  instructions  as  to  the  use  of 
the  ingredients  in  case  the  plate  is  known  to  have 
had,  or  may  be  found  to  have  had,  too  little  or  too 
much  exposure.  The  maker  of  the  plates  may 
say  that  "any  good  formula"  will  develop  his 
plates,  but  he  recommends  the  formula  he  offers 
with  them  as  most  likely  to  give  the  best  results. 

Perhaps  the  plate-maker  is  right  in  thinking 
that  the  formula  he  gives  is  best  for  his  plates. 
I  say  "  perhaps  "  because  the  plate-maker  may  be 
mistaken ;  he  may  not  have  given  a  proper  trial 
to  all  other  developers.  But  it  is  true  that  a 
"good  formula"  will  develop  about  equally  well 
all  ordinary  kinds  of  dry  plates. 

Whether  the  amateur  begins  with  the  formula 
contained  in  the  first  package  of  plates  he  buys, 
or  begins  with  some  other,  he  should  use  the 
chosen  developer  carefully  and  accurately,  trying 
it  under  different  conditions,  making  special  ex- 
periments if  necessary.    The  photographer  who 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  149 


changes  his  developers  frequently  is  always  in  un- 
certainty, and  is  in  danger  of  becoming  a  mere 
dabbler  who  finds  out  a  good  many  things  that  do 
not  do  him  any  good,  misjudges  developers  be- 
cause he  has  not  given  them  a  proper  test,  and 
produces  very  few  pictures. 

Stick  closely  to  one  developer  until  you  have 
proved  that  another  is  better.  The  proving  is  sim- 
ple enough.  Having  prepared  your  tried  devel- 
oper, prepare  a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  developer 
you  wish  to  test,  or  of  the  modification  in  the  same 
developer,  following  carefully  every  instruction  of 
the  formula.  Then  expose  a  plate  in  the  camera 
upon  some  subject  that  will  give  about  the  same 
density  of  image  upon  all  parts  of  the  plate. 
Having  removed  the  plate  in  the  dark-room, 
break  it  in  half,  put  one  piece  in  one  tray  and  the 
other  piece  in  another.  By  developing  the  two 
pieces  at  one  time  with  the  two  developers,  it  will 
be  easy  to  judge  of  the  relative  qualities.  Each 
developer,  however,  must  be  given  its  own  time. 
One  may  take  a  little  longer  than  the  other ;  and 
while  a  reasonably  quick  developer  is  always  wel- 
come, the  final  test  is  in  the  appearance  of  the 
negative  when  the  development  is  finished.  In 
fact,  the  test,  while  simple  in  method,  requires  care 
and  judgment  to  make  it  really  a  true  one. 

Unless  the  photographer  is  certain  that  the  de- 
veloper with  which  he  has  experimented  is  actu- 
ally better  than  his  tried  developer,  he  will  be 


150  DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 


wise  not  to  "  change  horses  in  crossing  stream." 
Prepared  developers,  in  one  and  in  two  solutions, 
are  sold  at  photographic  supply  stores.  These  are 
often  useful,  as  when  the  photographer  is  travel- 
ing ;  but  the  amateur  is  generally  better  off  when 
he  knows  the  ingredients  he  is  using,  their  pro- 
portion, and  their  meaning. 

The  two  forms  of  developer  which  have  been 
longest  in  use  for  the  developing  of  dry  plates  are 
the  oxalate  of  iron,  or  ferrous  oxalate  developer, 
and  that  containing  pyrogallol,  or  pyrogallic  acid. 
These  are  familiarly  known  as  the  "iron"  de- 
veloper and  the  "  pyro  "  developer. 

THE  "  IRON  "  DEVELOPER. 

The  iron  developer  is  always  excellent  for  be- 
ginners, it  being  simple  in  form,  and  not  disagree- 
able to  handle.  I  shall  give  this  developer  in 
proportions  which  may  be  changed  somewhat  as 
the  photographer  learns  to  adapt  his  developer  to 
special  requirements  in  his  work. 

Oxalate  of  Potash.  Take  a  quart  bottle  and 
dissolve  in  it  with  30  ounces  of  hot  water  8  ounces 
of  neutral  oxalate  of  potash.  This  is  the  "  stock  " 
bottle  of  the  potash,  and  should  be  labeled  "  stock 
potash  "  or  otherwise  distinctly  marked.  When 
the  potash  is  completely  dissolved,  some  of  the  so- 
lution should  be  filtered  into  a  smaller  bottle  for 
use  in  developing.  A  pint  bottle  may  be  filled 
for  this  purpose.    Use  a  glass,  or  other  safe  filter. 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  151 


Filtering  paper  may  be  had  at  the  druggist's, 
where  it  will  be  easy  to  get  instructions  as  to  fold- 
ing it.  The  pint  (or  small)  bottle  when  filled 
with  the  filtered  solution  may  be  labeled  No.  1. 

Sulphate  of  Iron.  For  the  sulphate  of  iron 
stock  solution,  a  pint  bottle  will  be  sufficient. 
Dissolve  10  ounces  of  the  iron  in  15  ounces  of 
water,  adding  one  drop  of  sulphuric  acid  for  each 
ounce  of  water  used,  and  filter  5  or  6  ounces  of 
this  into  a  small  bottle  to  be  labeled  No.  2. 

Oxalic  Acid.  Dissolve  in  a  third  stock  bottle 
3  ounces  of  oxalic  acid  in  10  ounces  of  water. 
Filter  a  few  ounces  into  a  bottle  to  be  labeled  No.  3. 

We  now  have  the  ingredients  of  the  developer 
ready  for  use.  Supposing  that  we  are  to  develop 
a  plate  4x5  inches  in  size  in  a  tray  of  the  same 
size  (that  is,  made  to  receive  a  4  X  5  inch  plate) 
we  shall  take  a  graduate  and  pour  into  it  the 
three  elements  in  the  following  order  and  in  fol- 
lowing proportions  :  — 

No.  1  2^  ounces. 

No.  2  ^  ounce. 

No.  3  2  drams. 

If  the  potash  is  added  to  the  iron  instead  of  the 
iron  to  the  potash,  as  in  the  order  given  here,  the 
iron  will  precipitate,  an  accident  which  may  be 
detected  by  the  clouding  of  the  liquid.  In  such 
a  case  the  mixture  is  rendered  useless.  If  this 
precipitation  should  ever  occur  while  the  plate  is 
in  the  developer,  the  plate  should  at  once  be  re- 


152  DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 

moved  and  washed,  or  it  will  be  in  grave  danger 
of  ruin.  To  avoid  precipitation  of  the  iron  never 
use  a  larger  proportion  of  iron  to  potash  than  1 
to  4. 

Having  the  developer  thus  mixed  in  the  gradu- 
ate, remove  from  the  plate-holder  or  plate  closet 
the  plate  to  be  developed,  and  place  it  film  upward 
in  the  tray.  Then  flow  the  developer  over  the 
surface,  emptying  the  graduate  glass,  or  so  much 
of  its  contents  as  may  be  required. 

If  the  plate  has  been  properly  exposed,  the  high 
lights  of  the  image  should  begin  to  be  discernible 
in  about  thirty  seconds,  unless  the  developer  is 
too  cold.  After  the  high  lights  the  detail  of  the 
image  slowly  appears,  the  general  surface  of  the 
plate  growing  dark.  If  the  image  is  a  landscape, 
the  dark  effect  over  the  plate  will  be  deeper  than 
if  the  image  is  that  of  an  interior  in  which  there 
is  no  atmosphere. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  in  print  the  con- 
dition of  the  negative  at  the  time  it  should  be 
removed  from  the  developer.  Every  beginner 
should,  if  possible,  watch  the  operation  of  devel- 
oping before  attempting  it  himself  ;  but  personal 
experience  will  be  necessary  in  any  case.  In  gen- 
eral it  may  be  said  that  when  the  principal  black 
parts  of  the  negative  (the  high  lights  of  the  pic- 
ture) show  with  some  distinctness  on  the  back  of 
the  plate  when  it  is  turned  for  that  inspection, 
the  image  has  been  sufficiently  brought  out.  The 


A  NEGATIVE  THAT  EXPANDED 


Showing  the  result  of  an  attempt  to  dry  in  the  sun  a  negative  from 
a  charming  subject 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  153 

safest  judgment,  by  holding  the  negative  between 
the  eye  and  the  light,  will  be  possible  after  a  little 
experience. 

The  description  just  given  is  that  of  developing 
a  properly  exposed  plate,  but  the  chances  that 
the  beginner  has  exposed  his  plate  to  some  degree 
improperly  are  very  great.  If  the  image  does  not 
appear  on  the  plate  at  the  end  of  two  or  three 
minutes,  the  exposure  has  been  insufficient,  and 
two  drams  more  of  No.  2  may  be  added.  The  re- 
sult may  be  that  only  the  brightest  parts  of  the 
subject  will  appear  in  the  black  image  of  the  neg- 
ative, but  the  developing  should  proceed  as  long 
as  the  image  continues  to  gain  in  detail  or  until 
the  unexposed  parts  of  the  plate  show  a  consider- 
able darkening. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  image  should  begin  to 
appear  very  soon,  and  the  whole  plate  to  darken 
within  a  minute,  the  negative  should  be  removed 
quickly  from  the  developer  and  washed  (by  let- 
ting water  run  over  the  surface)  under  the  tap. 
Then  add  to  the  developer  one  ounce  of  No.  1  with 
one  ounce  of  water  and  thirty  minims  of  a  re- 
straining solution. 

Restraining  Solution. 

The  "  restrainer,"  which  should  be  kept  in  a 
bottle  so  marked,  may  be  made  in  this  way : 
Bromide  of  potassium  ...    1  ounce. 
Water  10  ounces. 


• 

154  DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 


The  action  of  the  bromide  is  to  make  the  devel- 
opment of  the  image  proceed  less  quickly  and  to 
prevent  to  a  certain  extent  the  "  fogging  "  of  the 
plate  in  case  the  exposure  has  been  excessive. 
If  the  exposure  has  been  too  great,  nothing  can 
nave  the  plate. 

"Accelerators"  are  sometimes  used  to  do  the 
opposite  of  what  is  accomplished  by  the  bromide — 
hasten  the  developing  when  the  exposure  has  been 
insufficient.  A  few  drops  of  a  weak  solution  of 
hyposulphite  of  soda  are  sometimes  taken  for  this 
purpose,  but  the  use  of  hyposulphite  is  not  recom- 
mended. If  the  image  does  not  appear  with  the 
developer  as  described  for  under-exposure,  little 
can  be  done  for  it. 

As  the  photographer  gains  experience  he  will 
find  many  ways  of  varying  the  simple  iron  devel- 
oper formula,  if  he  wishes  to  adopt  this.  The 
iron  developer  is  used  also  in  two  solutions,  and 
sometimes  in  one. 

When  the  plate  is  taken  from  the  developer  it 
should  be  carefully  washed,  brushed,  and  rinsed  on 
both  sides,  so  that  it  becomes  as  free  as  possible 
from  traces  of  the  developer.  It  is  then  ready  for 
fixing. 

Fixing  Solution. 
To  make  the  fixing  bath,  take 

Hyposulphite  of  soda  ...    5  ounces. 

Chrome  alum  1  ounce. 

Water  1  quart. 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  155 


The  alum,  which  will  give  the  bath  a  greenish 
color,  tends  to  harden  the  film,  and  is  especially 
necessary  in  warm  weather  when  "  frilling  "  is  lia- 
ble to  occur  at  any  time.  Many  photographers 
use  an  alum  bath  after  the  first  washing  and  be- 
fore fixing ;  and  in  extremely  hot  weather,  when 
the  plates  show  signs  of  frilling  at  the  edges  be- 
fore the  development  is  finished,  it  is  wise  to  have 
a  strong  alum  bath  in  which  to  place  the  plate  for 
one  or  two  minutes  after  a  rinsing  under  the  tap, 
even  if  the  fixing  bath  itself  contains  alum. 

After  it  has  lain  in  the  fixing  bath  for  a  few 
minutes,  the  milky  color  visible  from  the  back  of 
the  plate  will  begin  to  disappear  and  the  image 
will  be  more  distinctly  visible  when  the  plate  is 
held  between  the  eye  and  the  light.  The  plate 
should  remain  in  the  fixer  for  some  minutes  after 
the  film  has  cleared  in  this  way  —  perhaps  fif- 
teen minutes  altogether.  In  raising  the  plate 
from  the  fixer  to  examine  or  remove  it,  be  careful 
not  to  spatter  the  hypo,  particularly  if  the  devel- 
oping dish  is  near.  Careless  sprinklings  of  hypo 
will  make  the  dark-room  damp  and  unpleasant. 

After  the  fixing,  the  plate  must  be  entirely 
freed  of  the  hypo  that  saturates  the  film.  If 
the  hypo  is  not  thoroughly  washed  out,  the  plate 
after  a  time  will  show  a  staining  and  crystalliza- 
tion that  will  mean  that  it  is  ruined  beyond 
repair.  Be  particular,  therefore,  to  give  the  plate 
a  thorough  soaking  in  several  changes  of  water 


156  DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 

for  at  least  an  hour,  or  if  there  is  running  water, 
in  a  washing-box  or  on  a  washing-tray  (placed  at 
an  angle  so  that  the  water  will  run  steadily  over 
the  surface  of  the  plate)  for  half  an  hour. 

The  plates  should  be  dried,  after  this  final 
washing,  in  the  rack  lifted  from  the  washing-box, 
in  a  special  rack  arranged  for  the  purpose,  or 
drained  in  some  position  in  which  they  will  be 
as  nearly  upright  as  possible.  If  they  are  placed 
upright  on  a  shelf  or  ledge,  the  face  should  be 
turned  inward.  The  drying  place  should  be  dry, 
not  warmer  than  the  ordinary  temperature  of  the 
dark-room,  and  as  free  as  possible  from  flying 
particles  of  dust. 

THE  "  PYRO  "  DEVELOPER. 

The  pyro  developer  is  a  more  powerful  de- 
veloper than  the  ferrous  oxalate.  Thus  in  cases 
of  under-exposure  it  is  more  likely  to  accomplish 
desirable  results.  In  other  respects  it  "  works  " 
differently  from  the  iron.  It  makes  a  crisper  or 
more  brilliant  negative.  But  this  is  not  always  a 
desirable  quality,  as  compared  with  the  soft  effects 
produced  by  iron,  in  portraits  for  instance.  More- 
over, pyro  stains  the  fingers  in  a  disagreeable 
way,  unless  lifting  forks  or  rubber  gloves  are 
used.  If  the  iron  developer  is  suitable  for  the  be- 
ginner (it  is  still  a  favorite  developer  with  many 
distinguished  photographers),  pyro  is  a  developer 
for  the  experienced  hand. 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  157 


How  much  more  complicated  the  pyro  devel- 
oper is  than  the  ferrous  oxalate,  may  be  judged 
from  this  formula  by  Cramer  :  — 

No.  1.  Alkaline  Solution. 

Water  30  ounces. 

Carbonate  of  sodium  crystals 

(sal  soda)  1^  ounces. 

Sulphite  of  sodium  crystals  2  to  3  ounces. 
(For  winter  use,  2  ounces 

of  sulphite ;  for  summer 

3  ounces.) 

No.  2.  Pyro  Solution. 

Distilled  or  pure  ice  water  .    3  ounces. 

Sulphuric  acid  7  minims. 

Sulphite  of  sodium  crystals  30  grains. 
Pyrogallic  acid  |  ounce. 

To  develop  a  properly  exposed  plate,  this  de- 
veloper should  be  made  up  as  follows :  — 

In  winter,  No.  1  ....    1  ounce. 

No.  2  ....    1  dram. 

Water  (tepid)  2  to  4  ounces. 
In  summer,  No.  1  ....    1  ounce. 

No.  2  ....    1  dram. 

Water  (cold)  4  to  8  ounces. 

The  word  "  tepid  "  here  used  must  not  be  under- 
stood as  meaning  distinctly  warm  water.  Water 


158  DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 


that  has  stood  for  a  time  in  a  warm  room  will 
be  sufficiently  tepid ;  that  is,  it  will  have  "  the 
chill  off." 

When  there  is  any  chance  of  over-exposure, 
and  particularly  in  the  summer-time,  30  minims 
of  the  bromide  or  restraining  solution  already 
described  should  be  added  to  this  developer.  If 
the  plate  shows  unmistakable  signs  of  fogging 
from  over  -  exposure,  double  the  amount  of  the 
restrainer  —  a  full  dram. 

If  the  image  appears  so  slowly  as  to  leave  no 
doubt  that  the  plate  was  not  exposed  long  enough, 
the  full  quantity  of  water  should  be  used.  This 
will  prolong  the  development.  As  a  further  aid 
to  the  bringing  out  of  the  image,  a  fresh  devel- 
oper may  be  made  up  with  half  the  quantity  of 
pyro  (No.  2)  and  the  full  quantity  of  the  alka- 
line solution  (No.  1).  To  do  this  the  developer 
should  be  kept  very  cool,  or  the  plate  may  fog. 
Where  brilliant  contrasts  are  desired  (as  in  copy- 
ing line  drawings),  the  quantity  of  pyro  may  be 
increased  beyond  the  proportion  given  in  the 
formula. 

I  shall  here  give  a  few  other  formulas  for  de- 
veloping, in  the  order  in  which  they  have  come 
into  use. 

THE  "  HYDROCHINON  "  DEVELOPER. 

Hydrochinon,  hydroquinone,  or  quinol,  is  a 
substance  long  known  to  chemists,  but  only  re 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  159 


cently  adopted  as  a  photographic  agent.  It  is 
now  accepted  among  the  standard  developers.  In 
operation  it  is  slower  than  pyro,  but  is  much  like 
pyro  in  its  results. 

The  following  formula  is  simple  and  excellent : 

No.  1.    Hydrochinon  Solution. 
Sulphite  of  soda  ....  480  grains. 

Hydrochinon  96  grains. 

Water  8  ounces. 

No.  2.    Soda  Solution. 
Carbonate  of  soda    .    .    .  480  grains. 
Water   8  ounces. 

For  ordinary  use  make  up  this  developer  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

No.  1  8  drams. 

No.  2  4  drams. 

Water   4  ounces. 

Bromide  should  be  added  to  this  developer  un- 
der the  same  circumstances  as  in  pyro.  If  it  is 
not  probable  that  the  plate  has  had  too  much  ex- 
posure, omit  the  bromide.  Unlike  pyro,  hydrochi- 
non may  be  used  repeatedly,  although  it  will  work 
more  densely  —  giving  stronger  contrasts  —  as  it 
proceeds.  It  is  thus  better  to  use  fresh  developer 
for  an  under-exposed  plate ;  but  unless  the  plate 
is  known  to  be  over-exposed,  the  operator  should 
give  to  himself  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  by  begin- 


160  DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 

ning  the  developing  with  old  developer,  of  which 
I  shall  speak  in  a  moment. 

THE  "  EIKONOGEN  "  DEVELOPER. 

This  developer,  to  which  photographers  like  to 
give  the  pet  name  of  "  Eiko,"  is  one  of  the  later 
favorites.  It  is  used  both  in  one  and  in  two  solu- 
tions, and  produces  a  very  rich  black  in  the  nega- 
tive image.  Here  is  a  single  solution  formula  :  — 

Sulphite  of  sodium  crystals  .    2  ounces. 
Carbonate  of  potassium  .    .    1  ounce. 

Eikonogen  J  ounce. 

Water  (boiling)    ....  20  ounces. 

This  is  the  stock  solution.  To  develop  take 
three  ounces  or  more,  as  may  be  required  to  cover 
the  plate. 

A  two-solution  formula  for  eikonogen  —  prob- 
ably better  than  the  other  —  is  made  up  in  this 
way:  — 

No.  1.    Eikonogen  Solution. 
Sulphite  of  sodium  crystals  .    2  ounces. 

Eikonogen  ^  ounce. 

Water  30  ounces. 

Shake  until  the  eikonogen  is  dissolved. 

No.  2.    Soda  Solution. 
Carbonate  of  sodium  crystals  1|-  ounces. 
Water     .    .    .    .    .    .    .10  ounces. 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  161 

For  developing  make  up  as  follows :  — 

No.  1  3  ounces. 

No.  2  1  ounce. 


For  fixing  negatives  developed  with  eikonogen, 
a  special  form  of  fixing  bath  is  generally  recom- 
mended. This  formula  has  been  given  by  Cra- 
mer :  — 

Dissolve  16  ounces  of  hyposulphite  of  soda  in 
3  pints  of  water. 

Dissolve  in  a  separate  pint  of  water  2  ounces 
of  sulphite  of  sodium  crystals,  adding  ^  of  an 
ounce  of  sulphuric  acid. 

After  the  ingredients  are  completely  dissolved, 
pour  the  latter  solution  into  the  former,  and  allow 
it  to  settle  before  using. 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  give  any  further  for- 
mulas in  this  chapter.  On  later  pages  of  this 
book  will  be  found  other  formulas  which  the 
amateur  may  wish  to  test. 

It  will  only  be  necessary  here  to  say  a  few 
words  about  the  use  of  developers  in  general. 
The  dark-room  should  be  supplied  with  a  pint 
bottle  marked  "  Old  Developer."  ("  Old  dev  "  on 
one  of  my  bottles  has  always  seemed  mysterious 
to  the  uninitiated  !)  After  a  developing  solu- 
tion has  been  used  it  may  be  poured  off  into  this 
bottle.  On  the  next  occasion  when  plates  are  to 
be  developed  this  old  developer  may  be  used  to 
start  the  plate,  especially  where  there  is  any  un- 


162 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE. 


certainty  as  to  whether  the  plate  may  not  have 
been  over-exposed. 

Iron  and  pyro  developers,  in  particular,  work 
much  more  slowly  after  one  use ;  and  if  the  plate, 
instead  of  being  over-exposed,  should  be  found  to 
have  been  under-exposed,  the  old  developer  should 
be  rinsed  off  before  the  plate  is  placed  in  the  fresh 
developer,  for  the  reason  that  in  such  a  case  the 
action  of  the  old  developer  is  like  that  of  a  re- 
strainer.  The  old  developer  is  thrown  away  after 
the  second  use,  and  the  fresh  developer  afterward 
applied  becomes  the  old  or  used  developer  for  the 
next  operation. 

The  substitution  of  "  films  "  for  plates  as  a 
backing  for  the  sensitive  surface  need  make  little 
difference  in  developing,  although  special  formu- 
las are  sometimes  advocated.  As  films  do  not  lie 
perfectly  flat  in  the  tray  when  dry,  it  is  necessary 
to  see  that  they  are  at  once  completely  covered  by 
the  developer.  Films,  like  glass  plates,  may  be 
developed  face  downwards  if  care  be  taken  to  sup- 
port the  rim  in  some  way  so  that  the  face  is  one 
eighth  of  an  inch  or  more  from  the  bottom  of  the 
dish. 

INTENSIFYING. 

Negatives  which,  after  development,  are  found 
to  be  objectionably  weak  may  be  "  intensified  "  if 
they  have  been  thoroughly  washed  after  fixing. 
The  intensifier  most  in  use  has  been  bichloride  of 
mercury  and  ammonia. 


DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGE.  163 


After  a  thorough  washing  the  negative  is  flooded 
with  a  solution  of  this  kind  :  — 

Bichloride  of  mercury  .  .  10  grains. 
Chloride  of  ammonia  .  .  10  grains. 
Water  1  ounce. 

This  whitens  the  image.  The  plate  is  then 
washed  well  and  immersed  in  a  darkening  solu- 
tion made  up  of  one  part  of  ammonia  to  eight  or 
nine  parts  of  water. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

The  making  of  the  final  print  is  one  of  the 
most  enticing  operations  in  photography,  since  it 
gives  at  last  the  product  toward  whose  perfection 
all  the  other  plans  and  processes  have  been  di- 
rected. At  last  we  are  to  see  things  right  side  up 
and  in  their  natural  light  and  shade. 

At  the  same  time,  the  printing  process  is  one 
that  brings  up  many  trials  and  disappointments, 
especially  to  those  hurry-scurry  people  who  were 
born  without  the  useful  ability  to  take  pains. 
Above  all  things,  even  above  exactness,  the  print- 
ing process  demands  cleanliness.  Without  clean- 
liness the  chances  of  a  satisfactory  result  are  ex- 
tremely meagre. 

The  ordinary  sun  printing  process  may  be  di- 
vided into  five  departments,  thus  :  — 

1.  Silvering  the  paper. 

2.  Printing. 

3.  Toning  the  print. 

4.  Fixing  the  print. 

5.  Mounting  the  print. 

Each  of  these  departments  includes  various 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  165 


minor  operations.  The  process  of  "  sensitizing  " 
the  albumenized  paper  with  nitrate  of  silver  had 
better  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  mercantile  pho- 
tographer, providing,  of  course,  the  professional 
photographer  is  accessible  enough  to  make  this 
more  convenient.  Many  amateurs  silver  their  own 
paper,  and  their  grasp  of  the  whole  field  of  opera- 
tion gives  them  a  certain  pleasant  independence, 
not  to  mention  the  advantage  of  entirely  fresh 
material. 

If  the  amateur  has  plenty  of  time  or  lives  at  a 
point  remote  from  any  photographer  who  is  will- 
ing to  silver  a  sheet  for  him,  the  silvering  process 
should  be  mastered,  as  it  may  with  little  difficulty. 
But  nitrate  of  silver  on  the  hands  promptly  turns 
dark,  as  we  have  seen,  when  exposed  to  the  light ; 
and  for  busy  people  who  must  catch  the  sunlight 
when  they  can,  the  temptation  to  run  into  a  pho- 
tographer's and  get  a  silvered  sheet  is  hard  to 
resist.  The  mercantile  photographer,  silvering 
a  full  sheet  at  a  time,  and  going  through  the 
operation  frequently,  will  have  paper  that  is  freer 
from  blemishes  (and  a  spot  of  the  silver  solu- 
tion on  the  back  of  the  paper  ruins  that  spot) 
than  the  amateur's  product  is  likely  to  be.  More- 
over, "ready-sensitized"  albumen  paper  is  sold 
by  dealers.  This  is  not  so  good  as  paper  freshly 
sensitized  and  used  immediately  after  the  silver- 
ing and  drying,  though  it  is  serviceable  enough 
for  many  purposes.    For  a  silvered  sheet  bought 


166   SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

at  the  photographer's,  cutting  into  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  pieces  for  small  prints,  twenty-five  cents 
is  a  fair  price. 

After  it  has  been  silvered  and  fumed  with  am- 
monia, the  paper  is  sensitive  to  the  action  of  light, 
and  must  be  kept  in  a  dark  place  (such  as  a 
table  drawer)  near  the  printing-quarters.  In  a 
shaded  place  the  light  acts  so  slowly  upon  the 
paper  that  there  is  no  occasion  for  great  precau- 
tion against  the  effect  of  light. 

If  possible  have  a  preserving  can,  made  air- 
tight and  containing  (between  a  true  and  a  false 
bottom)  the  chemical  preservative  now  sold.  By 
this  means  prints  made  at  intervals  of  several  days 
may  be  kept  until  such  time  as  the  amateur  has 
opportunity  to  go  on  with  the  toning.  In  very 
warm  weather  silvered  albumen  paper  will  scarcely 
remain  in  good  condition  for  twelve  hours  with- 
out such  a  precaution.  In  cold  weather  it  will 
keep  without  the  use  of  preservative  several  days, 
although  it  produces  the  best  prints  when  fresh. 

PRINTING. 

The  best  place  for  printing  is  one  that  gives  un- 
obstructed sunlight,  and  that  offers  opportunity 
also  for  printing  away  from  direct  rays  of  the  sun. 
A  great  convenience  is  a  broad  shelf  constructed 
on  the  outside  of  a  window  on  a  level  with  the 
outer  sill.  When  the  weather  is  very  cold  it  is 
hard  to  do  good  printing  with  the  negative  ex* 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  167 


posed  to  the  open  air.  There  are  two  ways  to 
avoid  this  difficulty.  One  is  to  cover  the  face 
of  the  frame  with  a  sheet  of  thin  white  paper ; 
"  onion-skin  "  paper  or  fine  tissue  is  desirable. 
The  sunlight  falling  steadily  on  this  paper  will 
warm  the  air  between  it  and  the  glass.  The  other 
way  is  to  print  inside  the  window.  In  this  case 
the  printer  must  see  to  it  that  blemishes  in  the 
window  glass  do  not  print  themselves  through  the 
negative  upon  the  paper.  If  the  glass  is  not 
French  plate,  it  is  best,  when  printing  inside  the 
window,  to  cover  the  printing  frame  with  the  tis- 
sue or  a  piece  of  ground  glass.  When  tissue  or 
thin  paper  is,  for  this  purpose,  placed  over  the 
frame,  it  should  be  stretched  so  as  not  to  fall 
against  the  negative,  else  the  grain  will  be 
printed. 

A  "  thick  "  negative,  or  one  strong  in  contrasts, 
should  be  printed  in  direct  sunlight.  A  "  thin  " 
negative  should  be  printed  slowly,  either  under 
two  thicknesses  of  tissue  paper  or  in  the  shade 
out  of  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  Many  photo- 
graphers prefer  to  print  in  the  shade  all  negatives 
that  do  not  for  some  reason  —  as  in  "  vignetting  " 
—  require  to  be  printed  under  tissue  or  ground 
glass.  The  time  occupied  is  longer,  but  the  re- 
sults are  richer  and  more  brilliant. 

As  the  print  should  be  trimmed  before  the 
"  toning,"  it  is  well  to  trim  it  in  the  first  place, 
before  printing.    If  there  is  any  doubt,  however, 


168   SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

as  to  how  much  of  the  negative  it  is  desirable  to 
include  in  the  print,  the  trimming  should  be  left 
until  after  the  printing. 

"  Vignetting  "  is  the  name  given  to  that  variety 
of  printing  by  which  the  image  is  made  to  grad- 
ually fade  at  the  edges  until  it  disappears  in 
the  white  of  the  paper.  The  usual  forms  of  the 
vignette  are  the  oval  and  the  egg  shape.  It  is 
sometimes  used  in  landscapes  and  often  in  figure 
subjects,  but  generally  in  portraits.  In  portraits 
both  the  oval  and  the  egg  shape  are  used,  the  lat- 
ter usually  in  cases  where  the  bust,  as  well  as  the 
head,  is  included. 

To  use  a  printing  frame  for  vignetting,  it  may 
be  supplied  with  one  of  the  contrivances  sold  for 
the  purpose,  or  it  may  be  prepared  in  this  way  : 
Tack  a  frame  of  wood  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
high  around  the  face  of  the  frame.  Take  a  piece 
of  pasteboard  and  trim  it  to  the  size  of  the  outer 
edge  of  the  frame.  Pencil  on  this  pasteboard  a 
rough  outline  of  the  head  and  shoulders  of  the 
portrait  at  the  point  corresponding  to  their  posi- 
tion when  pasteboard  and  negative  are  in  place. 
Now  cut  in  the  pasteboard  an  opening  as  suggested 
in  Fig.  19.  A  piece  of  tissue  paper  (the  onion- 
skin always  preferred)  is  then  placed  over  the 
pasteboard  and  gummed  on  at  the  outer  edges. 
The  light  enters  freely  where  the  opening  is  com- 
plete, and  gradually  diminishes  to  the  edges,  the 
intervening  paper  preventing  the  lines  of  the  open« 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  169 


ing  from  marking  themselves  in  the  print.  The 
pasteboard  may  be  held  on  the  printing  frame 
with  elastic  bands,  by  an  outer  wooden  or  metal 
frame,  by  folding  down  a  large  piece  of  cardboard 
so  that  it  resembles  a  box  cover,  or  by  a  flange 


Fig.  19. 


fitted  to  the  printing  frame  and  a  snugly-fitting 
wire  binding  piece.  The  whole  contrivance  should 
face  the  sun  at  a  right  angle  corresponding  to  the 
height  of  the  sun  at  the  time  of  printing. 

To  vignette  successfully,  a  portrait  should  have 
a  light  background,  and  should  be  on  a  plate 
large  enough  to  permit  an  easy  gradation  in  the 
image  and  background.    Unless  there  is  a  light, 


170   SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

unfigured  background  it  is  seldom  advisable  to 
try  vignetting.  Artistic  effects  are  by  no  means 
confined  to  this  familiar  method.  In  fact,  some 
of  the  most  artistic  effects  in  photography,  as  in 
any  other  kind  of  portraiture,  are  had  by  the  use 
of  dark  backgrounds  or  backgrounds  graded  from 
one  side  to  the  other,  and  producing  the  brilliant 
effects  of  light  and  shade  such  as  delighted  the 
soul  of  the  revered  Rembrandt. 

But  all  such  rules  for  printing,  since  they  be- 
long to  the  realm  of  art,  are  not  rigid  but  vari- 
able. Do  not  hesitate  to  try  original  effects  ;  do 
not  be  too  eager  to  try  "  effects  "  at  all ;  and  do 
not  be  discouraged  by  the  unappreciative  remarks 
of  those  who  have  become  accustomed  to  the  for- 
mal and  so  often  stilted  work  which  the  mercan- 
tile photographer  is  frequently  obliged  to  turn 
out. 

If  the  development  of  a  negative  depends  for 
its  success  upon  the  correctness  of  the  exposure, 
the  printing  depends  for  its  success  upon  the 
qualities  of  the  negative.  A  weak  negative,  one 
in  which  the  contrasts  are  not  strong,  cannot  be 
made  to  yield  a  strong  print,  although  there  is 
considerable  opportunity  for  the  display  of  skill 
in  the  printing  process.  Parts  of  the  plate  may 
be  screened ;  the  back  of  the  plate  may  be  treated 
with  washes  of  water-color,  or  covered  with  tissue 
on  which  a  pencil  or  brush  has  been  used  to  pro- 
duce a  shading  that  will  retard  the  action  of  light 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  171 


at  points  where  this  is  desirable.  In  these  cases 
the  printing  should  be  done  at  a  spot  not  visited 
by  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun. 

The  point  at  which  to  stop  the  printing  depends 
upon  the  character  of  the  negative.  If  the  nega- 
tive is  weak,  it  will  be  impossible  to  get  a  rich, 
deep  color  in  the  shadow  parts  of  the  picture.  If 
there  are  very  dense  parts  to  the  negative  con- 
taining any  detail  that  it  is  necessary  to  bring  out, 
the  shadow  parts  may  be  greatly  overprinted  be- 
fore this  detail  is  impressed  upon  the  paper. 

The  fact  that  in  silver  printing  the  density  of 
the  print  is  greatly  reduced  in  the  fixing,  makes 
it  necessary  to  considerably  overprint  the  image. 
Thus,  after  the  image  looks  sufficient  when  exam- 
ined in  the  frame  (open  the  back  of  the  frame 
cautiously  so  as  not  to  slide  the  paper),  it  is  neces- 
sary to  print  for  a  certain  length  of  time  in  allow- 
ance for  what  will  be  lost  in  the  fixing.  Just 
what  allowance  must  be  made  can  only  be  deter- 
mined by  experience. 

As  the  prints  are  taken  from  the  printing 
frames  they  should  be  placed  in  a  drawer  or  dark 
box  until  the  operator  is  ready  to  go  ahead  with 
the  toning  process. 

TONING  THE  PRINT. 

The  toning  should  be  done  by  daylight,  though 
not  where  there  is  a  strong  light.  If  all  the  prints 
have  been  trimmed,  they  should  be  immersed  in 


172   SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

a  dish  of  clear  water.  They  will  crinkle  up  on 
first  becoming  wet,  and  should  be  immersed  one 
by  one,  face  downward,  until  all  are  floated  in  the 
dish.  They  may  then  be  moved  about  for  perhaps 
five  minutes,  when  the  water,  which  will  have 
begun  to  assume  a  milky  color  (from  the  silver 
salts),  should  be  poured  off  and  the  prints  rinsed 
and  floated  in  fresh  water.  In  the  third  change 
of  water  the  prints  will  have  ceased  to  give  off  the 
milkiness.  They  will  then  be  ready  for  the  toning. 

The  "  toning  bath,"  which  should  be  prepared 
about  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  at  least  before 
the  time  when  it  is  to  be  used,  may  be  made  up 
in  a  rubber,  glass,  or  porcelain  tray  —  any  per- 
fectly clean  tray  in  which  there  can  be  no  con- 
taminating substance.  This  receptacle  should  be 
large  enough  to  float  the  cuttings  from  a  single 
sheet,  and  as  much  larger  as  may  be  had.  The 
prints  from  a  single  sheet  may  be  managed  in  a 
tray  of  10  X  12  inches,  the  prints  being  kept  in 
motion  so  that  the  underneath  sheets  may  be 
brought  to  the  top  and  the  topmost  shifted  down- 
ward. 

Fill  the  toning  tray  with  a  quantity  of  tepid 
water  sufficient  to  freely  float  the  prints  —  it  will 
be  well  to  nearly  fill  the  tray  unless  it  is  a  large 
one.  "  Tepid  "  in  this  case  means  warm  enough 
to  seem  warm  to  the  fingers  when  they  are 
dipped  into  the  bath.  To  this  bath  must  be 
added  one  grain  of  chloride  of  gold  for  each  sheet 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  173 


of  silvered  paper  ;  that  is,  each  whole  sheet.  (If 
the  prints  that  are  to  be  toned  have  been  cut  from 
a  single  sheet,  one  grain  of  chloride  of  gold  will  be 
sufficient.) 

The  gold  in  liquid  form  comes  sometimes  with 
four  or  more  grains  to  the  ounce,  sometimes  with 
two,  sometimes  with  one.  This  should  be  known 
in  the  buying ;  and  if  the  solution  is  four  grains 
to  the  ounce,  a  quarter  of  an  ounce  will  be  the 
quantity  to  be  placed  in  the  bath  for  each  whole 
sheet.  The  gold  solution  is  generally  slightly  acid, 
and  the  bath,  to  tone  properly,  requires  to  be  alka- 
line. To  make  it  alkaline,  add  so  much  of  car- 
bonate of  soda  (common  washing  soda)  as  may  be 
necessary.  The  test  may  be  made  with  a  piece  of 
litmus  paper,  but  probably  a  small  thimbleful  of 
the  soda  will  be  a  safe  quantity ;  also  add  to  the 
bath  common  salt  of  a  quantity  equal  to  that  of 
the  soda.  When  the  bath  thus  prepared  has  stood 
for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  it  will  be  ready  to 
receive  the  prints. 

The  prints  may  now  be  lifted  one  by  one  from 
the  washing  dish  and  placed  in  the  bath.  Here 
they  should  be  kept  in  motion,  so  that  each  print 
may  receive  the  equal  action  of  the  solution.  By 
getting  about  half  the  prints  started  in  the  toning 
dish  for  four  or  five  minutes  before  lifting  in  the 
remainder,  it  will  be  possible  to  compare  the 
changing  color  of  the  toned  prints  with  the  color 
of  the  untoned  or  partly  toned  prints. 


174   SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

The  action  of  the  gold  bath  is  to  give  the  print 
• — unless  the  print  is  thin  and  weak  in  conse- 
quence of  a  weak  negative  —  a  rich  purple-brown 
color.  How  quickly  this  tone  will  come  into  the 
prints  will  depend  upon  the  temperature  of  the 
bath,  the  quality  of  the  paper,  and  other  circum- 
stances. If  the  toning  is  kept  up  too  long,  the 
shadow  parts  of  the  prints  will  lose  their  brilliancy 
and  become  smoky  in  color.  Avoid  carrying  the 
toning  so  far.  It  will  be  particularly  necessary  to 
watch  the  weak  prints,  which  will  not  bear  so  much 
toning,  and  will  not  take  the  rich  purple  color. 

As  each  print  reaches  the  point  where  it  seems 
to  have  the  richest  color  it  is  capable  of  taking, 
remove  it  to  another  dish  of  clear  water.  When 
all  the  prints  have  been  toned  and  rinsed  in  clear 
water,  they  are  ready  for  fixing. 

FIXING  THE  PRINT. 

The  fixing  bath  should  be  made  up  of  a  quantity 
of  water  about  equal  to  that  used  in  toning.  The 
water  should  not  be  too  cold,  and  to  each  eight 
ounces  should  be  added  one  ounce  of  hyposulphite 
of  soda. 

The  prints  should  here,  as  before,  be  kept  in 
motion,  and  should  remain  in  the  bath  about  fif- 
teen minutes.  The  hypo  will  diminish  the  bril- 
liancy of  the  purple  shadows,  giving  the  prints 
more  of  a  brownish  color,  but  most  of  this  briL 
liancy  returns  when  the  print  dries. 


"•GOOD  NIGHT!" 
By  John  E.  Dmnout 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  175 

Beautiful  "  sepia  "  effects  are  produced  by  only 
slightly  toning  the  print  or  by  omitting  the  toning 
and  simply  fixing  the  prints.  Rich  reddish  and 
yellowish  prints  are  thus  made,  and  for  certain 
subjects  the  effect  is  very  agreeable. 

After  the  fixing  the  prints  should  be  immersed 
for  five  minutes  in  strongly  salted  water,  which 
will  harden  the  surface  of  the  albumen.  They 
should  then  be  washed  for  a  number  of  hours.  If 
the  toning  has  been  done  toward  the  close  of  the 
afternoon  and  it  is  desired  to  mount  the  prints 
in  the  evening,  four  hours  in  running  water  will 
be  sufficient.  But  there  is  no  objection  to  leaving 
the  prints  in  water  over  night  if  mounting  in  the 
morning  will  be  more  convenient. 

A  simple  method  of  washing  prints  is  to  have  a 
deep  rubber  tray  with  perforations  in  the  bottom. 
This  tray  is  placed  in  a  larger  one,  and  raised 
slightly  by  the  placing  of  low  blocks  of  wood  or 
china  (such  as  small  butter  plates)  under  each 
corner.  The  water  may  run  in  and  out  of  the 
larger  tray  while  the  prints,  placed  in  the  inner 
tray,  are  prevented  from  floating  into  danger. 
If  there  is  no  running  water  the  prints  should  rest 
in  frequent  changes  of  water  during  five  or  six 
hours. 

MOUNTING  THE  PRINT. 

The  prints  should,  as  I  have  said,  be  trimmed 
before  the  toning.    If  this  has  not  been  done  in 


176   SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

any  instance,  the  print  must  be  dried,  trimmed, 
and  wet  again  for  mounting.  There  are,  indeed, 
methods  of  mounting  dry  prints,  but  the  ordinary 
and  easier  method  is  to  take  them  wet  from  the 
tray  in  which  they  have  been  washed,  and  place 
them  face  downward  in  a  heap  on  a  sheet  of  glass, 
porcelain  or  rubber.  Squeeze  out  some  of  the 
water,  then  apply  the  paste  to  the  top  print. 

The  paste  is  made  of  starch,  boiled  to  a  very 
stiff  jelly,  and  is  applied  with  a  broad  brush. 
The  moisture  of  the  print  loosens  up  the  stiff  paste 
to  the  required  consistency.  Be  careful  to  give 
sufficient  paste  to  the  edges  of  the  print.  Then 
lift  one  edge  of  the  print  with  the  aid  of  the  point 
of  a  pen -knife,  and  handle  the  sheet  without 
touching  the  edges.  Place  the  upper  line  of  the 
sheet  on  the  mounting  card  or  album  leaf,  and 
lower  the  rest  of  the  print  into  place.  Use  a 
clean  sheet  of  paper  (manila  will  do)  in  gently 
pressing  out  the  air  from  under  the  print,  which 
does  not  require  to  be  pressed  heavily.  If  the 
paste  has  been  properly  applied,  the  print  will  not 
curl  up  at  the  edges  in  drying. 

When  dry  the  silver  print  will  be  improved  by 
burnishing,  which  gives  a  finish  and  durability 
like  that  given  to  a  painting  by  varnish. 

In  trimming  a  print  do  not  hesitate  to  cut  away 
all  that  is  uninteresting  or  defective.  What  is 
left  will  appear  to  much  greater  advantage  by 
this  precaution.   I  mention  this  especially  because 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  177 


so  many  photographers  seem  to  have  a  prejudice 
in  favor  of  printing  all  that  is  found  in  the  nega- 
tive. If  they  use  an  8  X 10  inch  plate  they  mourn 
every  quarter  inch  that  is  trimmed  off  a  sheet  of 
this  size.  Often  there  is  only  a  4  X  5  inch  picture 
in  an  8  X 10  inch  negative.  Do  not  spoil  what  is 
really  good  by  hesitating  to  make  the  print  smaller. 

BLUE  PKINTS. 

The  name  "  blue  prints  "  is  given  to  the  prod- 
ucts of  another  familiar  form  of  sun  printing. 
These  have  an  excellent  quality,  and  are  not  only 
useful  for  making  off-hand  proofs  from  negatives, 
but  beautiful  as  an  art  medium  when  carefully 
made. 

The  blue  print  is  made  on  paper  coated  with 
citrate  of  iron  and  ammonia  and  red  prussiate  of 
potash.  It  may  be  bought  in  packages  ready 
for  printing ;  but  unless,  at  the  time  of  printing, 
it  has  been  recently  made,  it  will  not  give  satisfac- 
tory results. 

To  make  blue  paper  a  simple  formula  is :  — 

No.  1.     (In  stopper-bottle.) 

Citrate  of  iron  and  ammonia     1  ounce. 
Water  4  ounces. 

No.  2.    (In  stopper-bottle.) 

Red  prussiate  of  potash   .    .    1  ounce. 
Water  4  ounces. 


178  SUN  PBINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE. 

Keep  the  bottles  containing  these  solutions  in 
a  dark  place,  and  mix  equal  parts  of  whatever 
quantity  may  be  needed  to  cover  the  paper ;  an 
ounce  altogether  will  probably  be  sufficient.  Ap- 
ply the  mixture  rapidly  to  unglazed  paper  (hav- 
ing first  dampened  the  sheet)  with  a  brush  or 
sponge,  putting  on  merely  sufficient  to  tint  the 
paper  and  avoiding  streaks.  The  color  is  then  a 
pale  greenish-yellow.  When  the  paper  dries,  it 
is  ready  for  printing. 

Print  until  the  shadow  parts,  after  turning  a 
dark  blue-green,  begin  to  bronze  or  bake.  Then 
remove  the  sheet  from  the  frame  and  soak  it  in 
clear  water  for  ten  minutes.  A  few  drops  of  sul- 
phuric acid  in  the  water  will  give  the  print  a 
greenish  color.  Tannic  acid  and  carbonate  of  soda 
baths  are  used  to  give  brownish  tones,  and  a 
pretty  lilac  tone  that  will  not  last  may  be  pro- 
duced by  dilute  ammonia.  There  are  other  meth- 
ods of  "  toning  "  blue  prints. 

After  the  blue  print  has  been  washed  it  may 
be  dried  and  pressed  between  sheets  of  blotting 
paper.  In  this  case  the  trimming  may  be  left 
until  after  the  pressing. 

There  is  not  space  to  speak  at  length  of  "  com- 
bination "  printing.  By  this  method  clouds  pho- 
tographed on  separate  negatives  may  be  "  printed 
in  "  a  picture  with  a  white  sky.  The  sky  space 
of  the  print  to  which  the  clouds  are  to  be  added 
is  covered  in  the  printing  so  as  to  leave  the  clear 


SUN  PRINTING  FROM  THE  NEGATIVE.  179 


paper  for  the  subsequent  print.  The  place  of 
union  may  be  graded  by  the  use  of  loose  cotton 
—  not,  of  course,  in  direct  sunlight. 

Pretty  combinations,  both  in  blue  and  in  silver 
prints,  are  made  by  the  use  of  various  negatives 
and  mats  that  keep  certain  parts  of  the  printing 
paper  clear  while  other  parts  are  being  acted 
upon.  Fern  leaves,  lace,  and  other  materials  are 
employed  in  producing  background  and  combi- 
nation effects. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


VARIOUS  METHODS  OP  PRINTING. 

The  number  of  methods  by  which  prints  may 
be  made  from  the  negative,  both  with  sunlight 
and  with  artificial  light,  has  greatly  increased  in 
recent  years.  A  few  of  the  more  serviceable 
methods  may  be  described  here. 

"PLAIN  PAPER"  PRINTS. 

These  are  sometimes  called  "  salt  prints,"  and 
are  liked  by  artists  because  they  are  unglazed,  be- 
cause they  can  be  used  as  a  basis  for  ink  drawings 
with  "  bleaching,"  and  because  they  are  in  them- 
selves beautiful  when  well  made  from  good  nega- 
tives. Drawing  paper  of  various  kinds  is  effec- 
tively used  for  these  prints,  which  are  sometimes 
made  the  basis  of  a  water-color  painting. 

To  prepare  the  paper,  the  full  sheet  must  be 
fastened  to  a  board  with  thumb  tacks.  Then 
make  up  a  solution  as  follows  :  — 

Chloride  of  ammonium  .    .    16  grains. 

Water  2  ounces. 

Gelatine  4  grains. 

The  gelatine  may  be  placed  in  cold  water,  and 


VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING.  181 


the  cup  or  graduate  afterward  heated  by  standing 
in  hot  water  until  the  gelatine  is  dissolved.  This 
solution  may,  be  applied  to  the  paper  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  solution  for  blue  prints.  After  the 
sheet  thus  salted  is  dry,  brush  the  sheet  carefully 
with  a  solution  made  up  of 

Nitrate  of  silver    ....   60  grains. 

Water  1  ounce. 

This  brushing  must  be  done  so  as  to  avoid  streaki- 
ness,  or  the  printing  will  not  be  uniform.  The 
printing,  toning,  and  fixing  are  the  same  as  in 
silver  printing. 

PLATINUM  PRINTS. 

For  the  beautiful  platinum  print  the  photo- 
grapher is  indebted  to  Willis  of  England  and 
Pizzighelli  of  Bosnia.  The  paper  may  be  bought 
ready  sensitized,  and  most  amateur  operators  will 
prefer  to  provide  themselves  with  the  material  in 
this  way.  For  the  benefit  of  those  Vho  may  wish 
to  prepare  their  own  paper  a  formula  may  be 
sketched  as  follows  :  — 

Suitable  paper  (that  is,  of  a  fine,  firm,  unglazed 
surface)  is  floated  for  two  or  three  minutes  upon 
a  solution  containing 

Water  20  ounces. 

Gelatine  60  grains. 

Chrome  alum  ......      6  grains. 

Aniline  blue  (powder)  10  to  20  grains. 
The  gelatine  is  soaked  in  the  water  for  from 


182      VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING. 


one  half  to  three  quarters  of  an  hour,  then  warmed 
by  the  placing  of  the  vessel  containing  the  solu- 
tion in  a  larger  dish  of  heated  water.  When  the 
gelatine  has  dissolved,  the  alum  and  aniline  blue 
(or  whatever  elements  are  used  with  the  gelatine) 
are  added  and  the  whole  filtered  and  cooled.  Some 
operators  immerse  the  sheet  in  this  instead  of 
floating  it.  In  either  case  beware  of  air  bubbles 
on  the  surface  of  the  paper,  as  these,  if  remaining, 
would  produce  blemishes. 

When  removed  from  the  solution  the  paper 
should  be  hung  up  by  two  corners  until  dry. 
Then  it  should  be  treated  again,  hung  up  by  the 
opposite  corners,  and  dried  again.  The  paper  is 
now  ready  for  sensitizing. 

To  sensitize  prepare  the  following  solutions :  — 

'  Ferric  Oxalate  Solution. 

Ferric  oxalate     ....    120  grains. 

Distilled  water  1  ounce. 

1         Oxalic  acid  8  grains. 

The  solution  should  be  kept  away  from  actinic 
light. 

Chloro-Platinite  of  Potassium  Solution. 

Chloro-Platinite  of  Potassium  80  grains. 

Distilled  water  1  ounce. 

From  these  two  solutions  make  up  a  third  con- 
taining 24  drams  of  the  platinite  solution,  22 
drams  of  the  oxalate  solution,  and  4  drams  of  dis- 
tilled water. 


VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING.  183 

The  paper  should  be  coated  in  weak  light.  To 
hold  the  paper  flat  it  may  be  fastened  by  "  clips  " 
to  a  sheet  of  glass  or  the  corners  held  in  some 
other  satisfactory  way.  The  solution,  in  a  plate 
or  wide  dish,  should  be  applied  to  the  paper  with 
a  soft  pad  (such  as  one  of  cotton  in  muslin).  A 
sufficient  quantity  of  the  sensitizer  is  poured  into 
the  middle  of  the  sheet,  and  then  spread  over  the 
paper  by  a  gentle  rubbing  with  the  pad  until  an 
even  coating  has  been  given  to  the  whole  surface. 
This  rubbing  should  occupy  two  or  three  minutes. 
The  paper  is  now  hung  up  to  dry  once  more. 
When  it  is  nearly  dry  —  when  the  wet  appear- 
ance of  the  surface  has  disappeared  —  the  drying 
may  be  finished  by  holding  the  sheet  near  a  stove 
or  heater.  When  the  sheet  is  dry  enough  it  will 
crackle.  It  must  be  absolutely  dry  before  the 
printing. 

The  printing  is  done  as  in  the  silver  and  the 
plain  paper  processes,  but  is  more  difficult  to 
estimate,  as  much  of  the  image  does  not  appear 
until  the  development.  Only  practice  can  enable 
the  operator  to  estimate  the  proper  length  of  time 
in  printing.  The  time  is  short,  and  care  should 
be  taken  in  examining  the  progress  of  the  print- 
ing not  to  "  fog  "  the  paper. 

The  developing  solution  may  be  made  of 
Oxalate  of  potash  .    .    .     130  grains. 
Distilled  water  1  ounce. 

This  solution  must  be  heated  to  a  temperature 


184      VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING. 

of  about  175°  F.  The  print  is  placed  face  down- 
ward upon  the  developer  (by  sliding  the  paper 
into  position,  air  bubbles  may  be  avoided)  and 
held  there  for  two  or  three  seconds.  The  image 
may  be  emphasized  where  it  may  need  deeper 
tones,  by  a  prolonged  contact  with  the  developer 
at  those  points,  but  this  special  treatment  re- 
quires considerable  practice. 

Accompanying  the  developing  solution  should 
be  three  baths,  each  containing  hydrochloric 
acid  \  ounce,  water  15  ounces.  After  the  de- 
velopment, the  print  should  be  immersed  in  one 
of  these  baths  for  ten  minutes,  and  afterward  for 
the  same  length  of  time  in  each  of  the  others. 
The  print  is  then  washed  and  dried  as  in  the 
other  processes. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  platinum  processes, 
and  the  operator  must  undertake  to  find  for  him- 
self the  advantages  of  each.  Different  ingredi- 
ents give  different  qualities  to  the  color,  density 
and  brilliancy  of  the  print ;  and  the  character  of 
the  negative,  must  here,  as  in  other  processes, 
regulate  the  method  of  printing. 

BROMIDE  PRINTS. 

This  name  is  given  to  prints  made  upon  paper 
coated  with  bromide  of  silver  in  gelatine.  In 
the  market  it  is  generally  sold  in  three  grades  : 
smooth  and  thin,  smooth  and  thick,  rough  (like 
drawing  paper)  and  thick.    For  contact  prints  — • 


VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING.  185 

all  ordinary  prints  —  the  smooth  surface  is  to  be 
preferred. 

The  paper  is  extremely  sensitive  to  white  light, 
and  is  generally  printed  by  oil  or  gas  light,  a  few 
seconds  only  being  required  for  this  purpose.  As 
no  sign  of  the  image  appears  until  the  develop- 
ment, hold  the  printing  frame  at  a  definite  dis- 
tance from  the  light,  and  note  the  precise  number 
of  seconds,  so  as  to  correct  the  exposure  on  the 
next  trial  if  the  first  has  been  at  fault.  With 
a  full  lamp  or  gas  flame  a  clear  negative  will 
require,  let  us  say,  fifteen  seconds'  exposure  at 
a  distance  of  three  feet. 

The  exposure  may  be  made  by  carrying  the 
printing  frame  under  a  cloth  from  the  dark-room 
to  the  place  near  the  light ;  by  the  opening  of  a  red- 
glass  window  in  the  dark  room  and  admitting  the 
light  of  a  shelf  lamp ;  by  the  use  of  an  automatic 
gas-jet  regulator  in  the  dark  room,  or  by  any 
other  means  enabling  the  operator  to  regulate  the 
time  of  the  exposure  so  that  he  may  make  neces- 
sary corrections. 

The  development  is  with  the  "  iron,"  the 
hydrochinon,  or  the  eikonogen  developers,  already 
described.  The  "  iron  "  or  ferrous  oxalate  de- 
veloper was  first,  and  still  is  most  widely,  used 
for  developing,  but  with  many  variations  on  the 
simple  formula. 

There  is  this  difference  between  the  develop- 
ment of  a  bromide  print  and  the  development  of 


186      VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING. 


a  negative  :  When  the  development  has  gone  far 
enough,  the  developer  is  poured  off  into  the  grad- 
uate or  bottle,  and  then,  before  washing  in  water 
or  placing  in  the  fixer,  the  surface  is  flowed  with  a 
few  ounces  of  a  solution  made  up  of 

Acetic  acid  1  dram. 

Water  32  ounces. 

Use  enough  of  this  to  barely  cover  the  paper,  and 
keep  the  tray  in  motion  so  as  to  wash  the  surface 
of  the  print  with  the  solution.  At  the  end  of 
about  a  minute  pour  off  the  acid  solution,  and 
add  a  few  ounces  more  of  the  same.  A  third 
wash  may  be  used  at  the  expiration  of  a  minute. 
Then  wash  the  sheet  under  the  tap,  turning  it 
over  in  the  tray  so  as  to  wash  the  back  also ;  then 
put  in  a  fixing  solution  containing 

Hyposulphite  of  soda     .    .    1  ounce. 

Water  8  ounces. 

The  print  will  fix  in  about  five  minutes.  It  should 
then  be  washed  for  thirty  or  forty  minutes. 

The  greatest  cleanliness  is  necessary  in  bromide 
printing  if  stains  are  to  be  avoided.  Care  is 
necessary  in  touching  the  surface  before  or  during 
development.  Before  beginning  the  development 
the  print  should  be  soaked  in  water  until  it  is 
limp.  The  developer  may  then  be  gently  flowed 
over  the  surface.  If  the  developed  print  is  washed 
before  it  has  been  treated  with  acetic  acid,  the 
surface  will  be  ruined  by  precipitation  of  the 
iron. 


VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING.  187 


For  discolorations  appearing  after  the  fixing, 
the  print  may  be  immersed  in  a  solution  made 
up  of 

Sulphuric  acid     ....    1  ounce. 

Chrome  alum  2  ounces. 

Water  20  ounces. 

After  remaining  in  this  solution  for  a  few  minutes 
the  print  must  again  be  washed  for  thirty  or  forty 
minutes. 

In  the  case  of  large  negatives  it  is  well  to  experi- 
ment, as  to  the  time  necessary  for  the  exposure, 
with  a  small  piece  of  the  paper  used  on  some  part 
of  the  negative  representing  its  average  density. 

Bromide  prints  make  the  most  richly  black  and 
white  of  all  prints  from  the  negative.  They  are 
not  so  delicate  in  quality  as  platinum  prints,  nor 
capable  of  such  variety  in  tone,  but  they  are  a 
very  useful  form  of  print. 

Enlargements  with  bromide  paper  are  described 
in  a  later  chapter.  The  mounting  of  prints  made 
by  this  process  must  be  done  when  they  are  dry, 
starch  paste  being  used  as  in  the  mounting  of 
other  prints. 

CARBON  PRINTS. 

The  carbon  printing  process  is  based  on  the 
principle  that  by  the  action  of  light  a  mixture  of 
gelatine  and  an  alkaline  pigment  is  rendered  in- 
soluble in  water.  Carbon  and  other  pigments  are 
used  to  bring  out  an  image  under  the  negative. 


188      VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING, 


For  sensitizing  the  prepared  paper,  or  tissue,  as 
it  is  usually  called,  the  following  formula  i3 
given  :  — 

Sensitizing  Bath. 
Bichromate  of  potash    .    .    1  ounce. 
Liq.  ammon.  fort.  .880  .    .    5  drops. 
Distilled  water     ....  20  ounces. 

The  tissue  is  immersed  in  this  sensitizing  bath. 
Two  minutes  will  be  a  sufficient  time  in  hot 
weather;  in  cold  weather  three  minutes  is  rec- 
ommended. After  drying  in  a  dark,  dry  place, 
the  paper  is  printed  in  the  usual  way.  The  time 
necessary  for  the  exposure  must  be  judged  by 
experiment.  A  piece  of  sensitive  paper  that  at 
once  shows  the  action  of  light,  placed  in  a  corner 
of  the  same  frame  or  in  an  adjacent  exposure, 
—  constituting  what  is  called  an  actinometer,  or 
measurer  of  light,  —  will  aid  in  estimating  the 
necessary  length  of  the  exposure.  As  the  action 
of  the  light  on  the  tissue  continues  in  the  dark,  the 
process  is  complicated  somewhat.  This  fact  must 
be  considered  in  the  exposure,  especially  if  the 
development  is  not  to  take  place  at  once. 

The  exposure  to  light  having  made  the  face  of 
the  gelatine  insoluble,  the  development  must  be 
from  the  back.  For  this  purpose  the  film  must 
be  transferred  to  some  support,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  "  transfer  pictures "  with  which  young 
people  delight  themselves.    But  as  this  would  re« 


VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING.  189 


verse  the  image,  —  put  the  left  of  the  picture  on 
the  right,  —  it  is  necessary  either  to  have  printed 
from  a  reversed  negative  or  to  only  temporarily 
transfer  the  tissue,  replacing  it  after  the  develop- 
ment on  a  permanent  support. 

There  is  one  advantage  of  this  transferring 
trouble  :  when  the  final  transfer  to  the  permanent 
support  is  made,  it  may  be  to  any  suitable  sur- 
face such  as  porcelain,  ivory,  stone,  shell,  wood,  or 
metal,  and  many  beautiful  decorative  effects  are 
made  possible. 

For  the  temporary  support  preceding  the  devel- 
opment, a  strong,  smooth  paper  is  used,  the  surface 
being  coated  with  shellac,  and  the  sheet  rolled, 
coating  outwards,  until  it  is  required  for  use. 
That  the  gelatine  tissue  may  not  stick  to  the  sup- 
port, the  shellac  surface  is  coated  with  a  solution 
containing  — 

Yellow  resin  .    .    .    .    .    .36  grains. 

Yellow  wax  12  grains. 

Turpentine  2  ounces. 

The  wax  is  melted  and  the  resin  and  turpentine 
added.  This  solution  is  applied  to  the  surface 
with  a  tuft  of  cotton  or  flannel.  When  the  sur- 
face is  dry  (the  drying  will  take  several  hours), 
the  support  sheet  thus  prepared,  and  the  tissue 
which  has  been  exposed  and  is  to  be  developed, 
are  immersed  in  water.  When  the  tissue  becomes 
thoroughly  limp  it  is  turned,  film  downwards,  over 
the  support  surface,  and  both  lifted  from  the  water 


190      VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING. 

together.  To  make  the  contact  perfect  a  "  squee- 
gee "  is  used.  The  two  sheets  are  now  placed  be- 
tween blotters  for  ten  minutes,  after  which  they 
are  removed  to  a  water  bath  heated  to  about 
110°  F.  Watch  the  edges  of  the  gelatine  sheet, 
and  when  the  gelatine  begins  to  "  run,"  the  paper 
may  be  peeled  off,  leaving  the  gelatine  upon  the 
waxed  surface.  The  gelatine  is  now  washed  by  a 
spraying  of  the  hot  water,  or  by  the  use  of  a  brush 
or  sponge,  until  all  but  the  insoluble  parts  bear- 
ing the  image  have  been  washed  away. 

When  this  development  is  complete,  a  cold  bath 
sets  the  gelatine,  and  a  hardening  bath  follows. 
The  hardening  bath  may  be  made  of 

Powdered  alum    ....      1  ounce. 

Water  20  ounces. 

Its  effect  is  also  to  remove  the  yellow  tinge  of  the 
bichromate  salt,  and  its  action  may  be  continued 
for  ten  minutes,  when  the  whites  of  the  picture 
should  be  clear. 

The  final  support  for  the  picture,  whatever  it 
may  be,  should  be  prepared  to  receive  the  film. 
Suitable  paper,  that  merely  requires  soaking  in 
an  alum  solution  containing  ^  ounce  of  powdered 
alum  and  1  pint  of  water,  may  be  purchased. 
If  the  surface  is  one  that  must  be  specially  pre- 
pared, the  coating  solution  consists  of  1  ounce  of 
gelatine  in  20  ounces  of  water,  to  which,  when  the 
gelatine  has  softened  and  has  been  dissolved  by 
heat,  is  added,  a  little  at  a  time,  12  grains  of 


VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  PRINTING.  191 


alum  dissolved  in  an  ounce  of  water.  The  final 
transfer  of  the  film  containing  the  image  is  made 
in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  case  of  the  first 
transfer.  If  the  reversal  of  the  image  is  not  an 
objection,  or  if  the  original  image  has  been  pro- 
duced from  a  reversed  negative,  the  first  transfer 
may  be  directly  to  the  permanent  surface. 

I  have  merely  sketched  one  method  of  perform- 
ing a  difficult  operation  in  photography.  If  after 
reading  this  sketch  the  reader  actually  wishes  to 
try  carbon  printing,  it  will  be  wise  to  get  fuller 
information  from  some  book  devoted  particularly 
to  this  form  of  printing  —  or  do  better  by  watch- 
ing some  competent  operator  go  through  the 
process. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


TRANSPARENCIES,   LANTERN   SLIDES,  AND 
ENLARGEMENTS. 

It  is  a  delightful  circumstance  in  photography 
that  the  negative  enables  us  not  only  to  get  a  pos- 
itive of  the  same  size,  but  to  get  an  enlarged  or  a 
reduced  positive.  Moreover,  it  is  possible  to  make 
the  positives  on  glass,  thus  giving  us  the  always 
interesting  "  transparency  "  and  that  special  form 
of  transparency  called  a  lantern  slide,  by  means 
of  which  the  image  is  thrown  in  any  desired  size 
upon  a  white  wall  or  screen. 

TRANSPARENCIES. 

A  transparency  is  a  print  from  the  negative  in 
which  glass  takes  the  place  of  paper.  For  several 
reasons  the  transparency  is  more  delicate,  accurate, 
and  beautiful  than  the  print  on  paper.  It  is  more 
delicate  because  it  is  made  on  a  finer  and  firmer 
surface.  It  is  more  accurate  because  glass  does 
not  shrink  or  expand  as  paper  does.  It  is  more 
beautiful  because  the  high  lights  are  produced  by 
transmitted  light  instead  of  by  a  dead  white  sur- 
face, and  are  thus  made  more  brilliant  and  more 
suggestive  of  nature  than  ordinary  prints. 


TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS.  193 

A  transparency  may  be  made  by  placing  a 
sensitive  plate  in  face  to  face  contact  with  a  nega- 
tive. The  plate  chosen  for  this  purpose  is  gen- 
erally a  "  slow  "  grade  of  dry  plate,  sufficiently 
larger  than  the  image  to  permit  of  a  white  border 
between  the  edge  of  the  image  and  the  rim  of  the 
frame  by  which  the  transparency  is  hung  up. 

To  "  mat  out  "  the  image,  that  is,  leave  the  white 
margin,  a  large  printing  frame  containing  a  sheet 
of  clear  glass  must  be  used.  A  piece  of  paste- 
board of  the  same  size  as  the  clear  glass  is  then 
cut  so  as  to  admit  in  the  centre  the  negative  from 
which  the  transparency  is  to  be  made.  A  clearly 
cut  opening  of  the  size  desired  for  the  image  — 
do  not  use  more  of  the  negative  than  will  make  a 
good  picture  —  is  then  made  in  a  sheet  of  thin 
opaque  paper  ;  a  black  unglazed  paper  is  best. 
When  the  opening  fits  to  the  desired  place  over 
the  negative,  its  outer  edges  should  be  trimmed  to 
meet  the  inner  margin  of  the  frame  so  that  it  will 
keep  its  position.  As  a  precaution,  a  little  paste 
may  be  used  in  attaching  the  opaque  paper  to  the 
pasteboard. 

A  piece  of  glass  the  size  of  the  proposed  trans- 
parency may  now  be  laid  in  the  frame  ;  and  when 
the  opening  is  brought  in  proper  place  in  the  cen- 
tre, the  outer  corners  may  be  marked  with  a  pen- 
cil or  piece  of  pointed  chalk  in  such  manner  as 
may  be  visible  in  the  ruby  light  of  the  dark-room. 

The  sensitive  transparency  plate  is  now  placed 


194   TRANSPAREN CIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS. 


face  downward  in  the  printing  frame,  just  as  the 
paper  has  been  placed  in  other  forms  of  printing, 
and  its  corners  adjusted  to  the  marks.  A  piece 
of  black  paper  or  felt  is  laid  over  this  and  the 
frame  cover  fastened  in.  The  black  backing  pre- 
vents the  reflection  of  light  from  the  white  lining 
of  the  frame  cover,  if  it  has  such. 

The  best  light  for  transparency-making  is  one 
that  is  steady  like  gas,  oil,  or  incandescent  electric 
light,  and  that  is  not  too  strong.  A  few  seconds 
only  are  required.  The  frame  should  remain  per- 
fectly rigid  during  the  exposure,  so  that  if  there 
is  any  unevenness  in  either  the  negative  or  the 
transparency  surface,  and  the  developed  and  un- 
developed films  are  not  in  absolute  contact,  there 
may  be  no  want  of  sharpness  on  that  account. 

The  utmost  care  should  be  exercised  in  handling 
the  transparency  plates  before  and  during  devel- 
opment ;  for  while  the  negative  does  not  suffer 
greatly  from  a  slight  stain  in  the  corner,  the  trans- 
parency, with  its  conspicuous  margin,  is  sadly 
marred  by  any  blemish.  A  metallic  developing 
fork  is  a  desirable  thing  in  such  a  case.  Have 
the  trays  very  clean,  and  the  fixing  bath  fresh  and 
filtered.  Be  particularly  careful  about  not  getting 
"  hypo,"  if  not  more  than  a  drop,  in  the  developing 
tray. 

The  plate  may  be  developed  to  good  advantage 
with  the  "  iron  "  developer.  After  a  thorough 
fixing,  immerse  the  plate  for  one  or  two  minutes 


TEA NS PA R EN CIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS.  195 


in  a  clearing  solution  consisting  of  ^  ounce  of 
sulphuric  acid,  1|  ounces  of  powdered  alum,  and 
20  ounces  of  water. 

With  transparencies,  great  care  should  also 
be  taken  in  the  washing,  which  should  be  so  con- 
ducted that  the  film  shall  not  be  damaged  by  sed- 
iment or  other  substance. 

Metallic  frames  are  provided  for  the  framing 
of  transparencies.  To  protect  the  film  and  prop- 
erly transmit  the  light,  a  piece  of  ground  glass,  or 
glass  coated  with  an  emulsion  to  give  the  same 
effect,  is  placed  on  the  film  side  of  the  positive, 
the  ground  or  emulsion  side  in  contact  with  the 
transparency  film.  Ground  glass  with  an  etched 
border  is  made  for  this  use.  The  border  fills  the 
space  between  the  matted  picture  and  the  frame, 
and  produces  a  decorative  effect.  Unless  a  pic- 
ture is  strong  and  brilliant,  it  is  better  without 
the  etched  border. 

Transparencies  are  also  made  by  the  carbon 
process,  and  by  various  other  methods  which  need 
not  be  described  here. 

LANTERN  SLIDES. 

A  lantern  slide  is  a  small  glass  positive,  made 
by  contact  with  a  small  negative,  or  by  reduction 
from  a  large  one,  and  of  a  size  suitable  for  the 
stereopticon  lantern. 

When  made  by  contact  it  is  made  on  the  same 
principle  as  the  transparency,  save  that  it  is 


196    TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS. 


unnecessary  to  mat  out  the  negative,  because  an 
opaque  paper  mat  is  used  for  the  slide  itself. 
One  of  these  mats,  showing  the  area  of  the  image 
that  will  be  included  by  the  slide,  may  be  laid 
upon  the  negative  in  choosing  the  part  that  will 
be  used  in  the  picture.  A  large  number  of  small 
plate  negatives  —  like  the  3^  and  4^  and  4x5 
plates  —  may  be  reproduced  in  lantern  slides  by 
contact  in  this  way. 

Larger  negatives,  or  small  negatives  such  as 
those  I  have  mentioned,  in  which  everything  on 
the  plate  must  be  included,  must  be  reproduced  by 
reduction.  For  this  some  apparatus  is  necessary. 
If  the  operator  has  a  copying  camera  the  ques- 
tion of  apparatus  will  be  disposed  of.  If  he  has 
two  cameras,  —  one  to  hold  the  negative,  and  the 
other,  with  lens  front  removed,  placed  to  hold 
the  holder  with  the  lantern  plate,  —  the  difficulty 
will  not  be  great.  With  one  camera  the  simplest 
process  will  probably  be  this :  — 

Place  a  table  close  to  the  window  at  which  the 
work  may  be  done,  having  the  long  way  of  the 
table  at  a  right  angle  with  the  window.  Construct 
a  box  about  12  inches  deep,  16  inches  wide,  and 
20  inches  long,  with  the  two  ends  open.  Into 
one  end-opening  should  be  fitted  a  frame  with  an 
upper  and  a  lower  groove,  into  which  might  be 
slid  a  "kit"  or  plate-carrier  capable  of  holding 
an  8  X 10  inch  plate,  or  the  largest  negative  the 
operator  is  likely  to  use  in  reducing  to  slides.  A 


TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS.  197 

set  of  kits  with  openings  for  various  sizes  of  neg- 
atives will  make  it  possible  to  place  the  negative 
in  one  end  of  the  box  while  excluding  light  from 
the  remainder  of  the  opening.  This  end  of  the  box 
will  go  toward  the  window.  If  we  look  through 
the  other  end  of  the  box,  we  shall  be  able  to  see, 
through  transparent  parts  of  the  negative,  when 
in  position,  the  objects  beyond  the  window,  if 
any  be  in  sight  save  the  sky.  One  way  to  avoid 
this  difficulty  is  to  use  a  special  table  with  long 
legs  at  one  end  and  short  legs  at  the  other,  or 
to  "  jack  "  up  a  wide  board  on  the  ordinary  table- 
top,  so  that  the  range  may  bring  the  sky  back- 
ground. Another  way  is  to  work  on  the  level 
and  use  a  mirror  or  white  surface  ground  glass 
beyond  the  negative.  A  mirror  or  white  surface 
(such  as  a  sheet  of  white  cardboard)  is  placed  in 
a  frame  outside  the  window  at  an  angle  of  45 
degrees.  The  surface  must  be  large  enough  to 
form  a  clear  white  background  for  the  negative 
at  the  angle  mentioned.  The  mirror  gives  the 
most  brilliant  and  quickly  illuminating  back- 
ground, since  it  simply  reflects  the  sky  through 
the  negative  and  into  the  lens.  If  the  sky  is  not 
clear,  an  intervening  ground  glass  is  necessary. 
The  mirror  or  reflector  is  unnecessary,  save  for 
the  increased  illumination,  if  a  piece  of  ground 
glass  is  hung  or  fitted  against  the  window  glass 
directly  opposite  the  negative.  The  illumination 
in  this  case  is  naturally  not  so  great  as  in  the  other. 


198    TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS. 

In  a  skylight  operating-room  the  copying  cam- 
era is  aimed  at  a  slight  angle  downward,  and  a 
white  angle  reflector  beyond  the  negative  catches 
the  light  and  furnishes  the  illumination  to  the 
plate. 

The  box  being  placed  in  position  as  suggested, 
a  camera  is  placed  behind  it,  with  the  lens  toward 
the  window.  Whether  the  lens  will  require  to  be 
within  the  back  rim  of  the  box  or  still  farther 
away,  will  depend  upon  the  size  of  the  negative 
which  is  to  be  copied  and  the  angle  of  the  lens 
in  the  camera  used  for  copying.  This  may  be 
determined  at  once  by  focusing.  If  the  lens  does 
not  come  within  the  line  of  the  box,  it  will  be 
particularly  advisable  to  have  a  hood  to  fit  from 
the  rim  of  the  box  and  fasten  by  a  drawstring 
or  elastic  band  to  the  neck  of  the  lens.  In  any 
case  such  a  hood  is  advisable. 

The  principle  of  the  arrangement  is  this  :  that 
while  a  negative  may  be  copied  by  simply  set- 
ting it  up  in  a  window  without  excluding  light 
in  the  space  between  the  negative  and  the  lens, 
the  excluding  of  the  light  of  the  room  gives  the 
full  strength  of  the  negative  image.  Of  course 
if  the  window  admitted  light  at  no  point  save 
through  the  negative,  and  light  were  admitted 
from  no  other  window,  special  apparatus  would 
be  unnecessary. 

The  dry  plates  used  for  lantern  slides  are  of 
thin  "  crystal "  glass,  packed  much  the  same  as 


TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS.  199 


ordinary  plates.  They  are  slower  than  negative 
plates.  To  make  good  slides  the  best  quality 
should  be  secured.  A  kit  or  holder  must  be  used 
in  placing  the  lantern  plate  in  the  camera-holder. 
As  the  glass  is  thinner  than  the  glass  of  the  plates 
for  which  kits  are  made,  care  should  be  taken  that 
the  lantern  plate  is  forced  to  the  surface  of  the 
holder,  either  by  a  spring  or  a  piece  of  blackened 
cardboard  of  the  same  size  fitted  behind  it. 

Lantern  plates  may  be  developed  with  any  de- 
veloper ;  but  as  pyro  tends  to  a  yellow  tinge,  which, 
while  sometimes  beneficial  to  the  negative,  is  un- 
desirable if  not  ruinous  to  the  slide,  the  pyro  is 
generally  excluded.  I  shall  not  offer  any  special 
formulas  for  slide  developing  here.  Formulas 
come  with  the  plates,  and  one  or  two  are  given 
in  later  pages  of  this  book. 

Do  not  make  all  lantern  copies  the  same  size ; 
that  is,  for  the  same  size  opening.  The  mats  sold 
for  framing  in  the  pictures  give  the  largest  possible 
opening,  and  are  uniform ;  but  there  is  no  greater 
excuse  for  framing  every  lantern  picture  in  the 
same  way  than  there  is  for  framing  other  pictures 
in  a  uniform  manner.  Each  picture  should  be 
"  centred  :  "  that  is,  come  precisely  in  the  centre 
of  the  plate.  To  insure  this,  as  well  as  to  discover 
how  large  to  make  the  copy,  and  how  much  may 
be  included,  paste  one  of  the  mats  on  the  ground 
glass  of  the  camera  precisely  at  the  point  where 
the  kit  will  bring  the  slide  plate  when  it  is  in 


200    TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS. 


position  to  be  exposed.  Agreeable  variations  on 
the  round-cornered  full  opening  are  formed  by- 
squaring  the  lower  part  (lifting  the  lower  frame 
line),  and  by  forming  small  and  large  squares, 
circles,  ovals,  etc.  But  the  simplest  form  of  open- 
ing is  generally  the  best  for  ordinary  subjects. 

The  negative  to  be  copied  should  face  the  copy- 
ing camera,  and  by  setting  it  upside  down  the  im- 
age may  be  viewed  right  side  up  on  the  ground 
glass. 

As  blemishes  in  a  lantern  plate  are  greatly 
magnified  on  the  screen,  the  plates  should  be  care- 
fully washed,  fixed  in  a  clear  fixing  bath,  dried 
in  a  place  free  from  dust,  and  otherwise  finished 
with  even  greater  care  than  a  transparency,  as 
already  described. 

The  lantern  plate  is  protected  by  a  cover  glass  of 
the  same  size  and  thickness,  held  in  place  by  a 
binding  strip  sold  for  the  purpose.  To  guide  the 
lantern  operator,*  each  slide  should  have  a  "  thumb 
label "  affixed  to  the  left-hand  lower  corner. 

ENLAKGEMENTS. 

Enlargements  are  generally  made  on  bromide 
paper.  The  principle  is  simply  that  of  "  casting 
up  "  the  image,  as  with  a  lantern,  upon  sensitive 
paper  and  then  developing  the  image. 

For  making  enlargements  "  solar  cameras  "  and 
special  apparatus  are  sold.  I  shall  speak  here 
only  of  enlarging  with  an  ordinary  camera. 


TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS.  201 

A  room  for  enlarging  by  the  use  of  sunlight 
must  be  totally  dark.  A  frame  for  holding  the 
negative  should  be  set  into  the  window,  light  be- 
ing excluded  from  all  other  parts  of  the  window 
save  a  square  of,  say,  12  inches  over  the  frame 
opening.  In  this  upper  opening  should  be  fitted 
red  glass  or  paper,  and  over  it  a  rolling  shade  or 
a  sliding  shutter.  This  will  enable  the  operator 
to  examine  the  materials  and  adjust  the  paper  by 
ruby  light,  and  when  this  has  been  done  the 
shade  or  shutter  may  exclude  the  red  rays. 

The  camera  may  now  be  placed  on  a  table  in 
front  of  the  frame  opening,  the  lens  pointed  to- 
ward the  negative,  which  is  placed  upside  down 
in  this  grooved  frame.  A  hood  similar  to  that 
suggested  in  the  remarks  on  lantern-slide  making 
may  be  fitted  over  the  negative  frame  in  the  win- 
dow and  around  the  neck  of  the  lens,  inclosing 
the  space  between.  When  the  ground-glass  back 
of  the  camera  is  lowered,  the  image  will  now  be 
thrown  upon  any  surface  set  to  receive  it,  and  the 
size  will  be  governed  by  the  nearness  of  the  lens 
to  the  negative  and  the  nearness  of  the  reflecting 
surface. 

If  the  camera  has  a  forward  focus,  that  is,  a 
stationary  bellows  frame  and  a  lens  frame  moved 
by  a  toothed  wheel,  another  and  better  plan  will 
be  to  turn  the  back  of  the  camera  to  the  window, 
blocking  out  the  light  with  the  hood  or  a  close 
fitting  frame. 


202   TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS. 

The  illustration  (Fig.  20)  shows  the  arrange- 
ment with  a  forward  focus. 


Fig.  20. 


There  are  easels  holding  bromide  paper  in  a 
large  roll  and  provided  with  a  frame  for  stretch- 
ing the  part  of  the  sheet  that  is  being  exposed.  If 
an  improvised  easel  is  used,  it  may  be  painted  white 
or  covered  with  white  paper  (pasted  on,  to  avoid 
the  chance  of  unevenness).  The  focusing  may  be 
done  with  this  white  surface,  and  the  bromide 
paper  then  placed  in  position  and  held  firmly  by 
thumb  tacks,  strips  of  wood  with  elastic  bands 
fastening  at  the  back  of  the  board,  or  other  means 
of  keeping  the  sheet  flat.  The  placing  of  the 
paper  must  be  accomplished  by  ruby  light  without 
moving  the  easel  in  the  slightest  degree ;  and  if 
there  is  any  doubt,  the  image  may  be  scrutinized 


TRANSPARENCIES  AND  ENLARGEMENTS.  203 


on  the  bromide  sheet  at  the  time  the  exposure 
begins.  In  fact,  this  precaution  is  desirable  in 
any  case,  it  being  quite  possible  to  correct  a  blun- 
der within  the  first  two  or  three  seconds  of  the 
exposure.  No  ruby  light  should  be  admitted  dur- 
ing the  exposure,  as  it  would  retard  the  action  of 
the  lens's  rays. 

The  easel  surface  must  be  absolutely  parallel 
with  the  negative,  or  the  whole  image  will  not  be 
evenly  in  focus. 

The  general  directions  for  developing  bromide 
prints  apply  to  bromide  enlargements. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
"mystery"  pictures. 

Certain  mercantile  photographers  made  some- 
thing of  a  sensation  a  number  of  years  ago  by  ad- 
vertising "  ghost "  pictures.  Much  curiosity  was 
excited  by  the  production  of  pictures  in  which  a 
person  seated  in  a  chair  was  accompanied  by  a 
pale  image  of  a  person  who  stood  beside  the  chair, 
ghostlike,  and  through  whose  shadowy  outlines 
the  background  of  the  room  was  visible. 

The  "  mystery  "  of  these  pictures  did  not  last 
very  long  for  some  people,  but  it  lasted  long 
enough  for  others  to  make  it  possible  to  practice 
deceptions  as  to  "  spirits."  In  fact,  to  this  day 
such  deception  is  continued. 

The  principle  of  the  ghost  picture  is  simply 
this:  The  sitter  and  the  ghost,  that  is,  another 
sitter,  are  placed  in  position  and  the  plate  is 
exposed  for  half  the  time  necessary  for  a  full 
exposure.  The  camera  is  capped,  the  " ghost"  is 
removed,  the  lens  is  uncovered  again,  and  the  ex- 
posure completed,  the  "  natural  "  sitter  remaining 
perfectly  still  during  the  whole  operation.  The 
result  is  that  the  sitter  is  fully  photographed, 


"MYSTERY"  PICTURES.  205 


while  the  "  ghost  "  figure  is  but  half  photographed, 
giving  the  effect  of  an  apparition. 

Many  curious  and  comic  compositions  can  be 
produced  on  the  same  plan.  Thus  one  person 
may  be  seated  as  if  dreaming,  while  a  number  are 
photographed  as  ghosts  of  those  of  whom  he  or  she 
is  dreaming. 

Another  and  more  popular  class  of  mystery 
pictures  is  that  in  which  one  person  is  photo- 
graphed two  or  more  times.  Thus  I  have  before 
me  a  picture  called  "  Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,"  in 
which  a  man  in  the  attitude  of  counsel  "  summing 
up"  is  talking  to  a  row  of  twelve  men  — all  him- 
self. Each  face  in  the  jury  box  has  a  different 
expression,  though  it  is  always  that  of  the  same 
person,  and  the  effect  is  novel  and  amusing.  Then, 
again,  I  have  here  a  boy  in  the  attitude  of  boxing 
with  himself ;  a  man  playing  chess  with  himself, 
and  standing  up  at  the  back  watching  the  game. 

A  description  of  the  methods  employed  to  accom- 
plish these  wonders  is  impossible  here  ;  but  it  may 
be  said  generally  that  a  black  or  extremely  non- 
actinic  background  is  the  basis  of  many  of  these 
curious  things. 

A  simple  "  double "  is  produced  in  this  way : 
The  front  of  the  camera  is  provided  with  a  box 
extension  having  two  doors  in  the  front.  These 
two  doors  must  divide  on  a  line  precisely  in  the 
middle  of  the  lens,  so  that  when  either  door  is 
open  precisely  half  of  the  lens  will  operate. 


206 


"MYSTERY"  PICTURES. 


The  door  of  the  front  box  may  be  held  open, 
or  the  box  removed  during  the  focusing  and  "  re- 
hearsal." Thereafter  a  cloth  may  be  thrown  over 
the  front  of  the  camera  in  lieu  of  a  lens  cap,  and 
to  prevent  the  chance  of  light  entering  through 
any  crack  between  the  two  doors. 

The  line  of  division  in  the  picture  being  well 
understood,  the  subject  is  posed  on  one  side  of  the 
line,  then  on  the  other,  the  corresponding  door 
being  opened  for  each  exposure.  A  pneumatic 
exposer  would  do  away  with  the  necessity  for  the 
cover  cloth.  Out  of  doors  the  exposer  will  be 
almost  indispensable  for  this  sort  of  work. 

Where  the  background  is  not  very  dark  it  is  de- 
sirable that  the  line  of  division  in  the  exposure 
should  fall  on  some  upright  line,  like  the  fold  or 
division  of  a  curtain  or  the  frame  of  a  door. 

With  an  absolutely  non  -  actinic  background 
(like  black  in  deep  shadow)  a  figure  may  be  pho- 
tographed two  or  more  times  without  the  use  of  the 
mechanical  device  I  have  described.  After  re- 
turning the  cap  to  the  lens  or  releasing  the  shut- 
ter, the  figure  may  be  placed  in  any  position  that 
does  not  cross  at  any  point  the  lines  of  the  figure 
in  the  previous  exposure.  If  the  full  figure  is 
shown  a  floor  covering  of  dark  material  will  be- 
come necessary. 

"Composite"  portraits  consist  of  an  image 
produced  by  photographing  a  number  of  faces  in 
precisely  the  same  position.    The  different  in* 


"MYSTERY"  PICTURES.  207 


pressions  are  sometimes  taken  on  different  plates 
and  united  in  one  print ;  by  other  methods  they 
are  made  upon  one  negative. 

To  take  all  the  impressions  on  one  negative,  the 
heads  are  posed  at  the  same  angle  and  at  the 
same  distance,  so  that  the  eyes  fall  on  precisely 
the  same  line  as  drawn  on  the  ground  glass,  and 
adjust  themselves  to  a  central  vertical  line.  The 
exposure  required  for  a  complete  impression  is 
divided  among  all  the  heads  to  be  photographed. 
In  order  that  it  may  not  be  difficult  to  estimate 
very  minute  fractions  and  to  make  extremely  short 
exposures,  a  small  stop  is  used,  say  one  requiring 
twenty  seconds  to  secure  a  proper  image.  With 
such  a  stop,  twenty  faces  may  each  be  given  one 
second  exposure  or  ten  people  two  seconds. 

A  method  of  making  "  magic  pictures,"  dis- 
covered by  Sir  John  Herschel,  is  as  follows :  A 
print  on  albumenized  paper  is  fixed  without  ton- 
ing, well  washed,  and  soaked  in  a  solution  of  per- 
chloride  of  mercury  until  the  image  disappears. 
Again  the  paper  is  washed  and  dried.  It  now 
contains  a  latent,  invisible  image.  To  call  it  out 
once  more  in  true  magician  fashion,  soak  a  piece 
of  blotting-paper  in  hyposulphite  of  soda.  If  the 
print  be  placed  face  downward  upon  this  and 
brushed  over  with  the  hand,  the  image  will  start 
up  and  will  be  brighter  than  before  its  disappear- 
ance. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA. 

Science  and  the  camera  have  been  chums  for 
a  long  time.  To-day  science  would  find  it  very 
difficult  to  think  of  getting  along  without  pho- 
tography. There  is  scarcely  a  department  of  sci- 
entific work  that  does  not  receive  help  from  this 
handmaid,  —  the  astronomer,  the  botanist,  the 
chemist,  the  mining  engineer,  the  physician,  all 
have  been  assisted,  sometimes  in  remarkable  ways, 
by  the  lens  and  the  sensitive  plate. 

Photography  has  made  it  possible  to  say,  with 
an  emphasis  that  was  impossible  before  its  com- 
ing, that  we  know  the  geography  of  the  moon  bet- 
ter than  we  do  that  of  our  own  earth.  The  sun 
has  been  photographed  in  various  moods,  and  the 
eclipses  of  J upiter's  satellites  have  been  reported 
with  a  precision  unknown  before  the  days  of  the 
dry  plate.  The  Paris  Astronomical  Congress  in 
1887  decided  upon  photographing  the  whole  sky ; 
and  the  great  work,  assigned  to  astronomical 
photographers  throughout  the  world,  is  still  in 
progress.  I  believe  it  is  expected  that  over  twenty 
thousand  plates,  ten  inches  square,  will  be  re« 
quired  to  tell  the  whole  story  of  star-land. 


SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA.  209 

To  illustrate  the  immense  value  of  photography 
in  giving  us  pictures  of  the  heavens,  it  is  only- 
necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  camera 
reports  stars  invisible  to  the  eye  through  the 
finest  telescope.  This  statement  has  a  strange 
sound  until  we  remember  that  the  sensitive  plate 
has  a  cumulative  action ;  that  is,  it  does  not 
merely  take  notice  of  light  at  one  time,  but  it 
stores  up  the  effects  of  light  rays  until  the  cumu- 
lative action  produces  an  image  the  momentary 
rays  of  which  could  not  be  perceived  by  the  eye. 
The  result  of  this  fact  has  been  to  open  up  vast 
new  fields  to  astronomy. 

There  is  one  great  difficulty  in  photographing 
the  heavenly  bodies  aside  from  that  of  the  un- 
steadiness of  the  atmosphere,  —  the  earth  is  mov- 
ing and  so  are  objects  singled  out  by  the  lens.  To 
overcome  this  obstacle,  machinery  has  been  con- 
structed with  such  nicety  that  even  for  the  long 
exposures  which  are  occasionally  necessary  the 
telescope,  lens,  and  sensitive  plate  steadily  follow 
the  moving  object  and  leave  not  a  blur  upon  the 
photographed  image. 

A  telo-photographic  lens  recently  invented  is 
an  interesting  combination  of  telescope  and  lens. 
With  this  lens  distant  objects  are  brought  won- 
derfully close,  and  the  resulting  image  on  the 
plate  resembles  that  formerly  produced  by  work- 
ing telescope  and  camera-lens  together. 

Even  in  combination  with  the  telescope,  special 


210      SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA. 

lenses  are  necessary  for  astronomical  work.  Since 
a  lens  of  ten-inch  focus  will  give  an  image  of  the 
moon  only  one  tenth  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  it 
may  be  seen  that  one  of  fifty-inch  focus  would  be 
necessary  to  give  to  the  image  a  diameter  of  half 
an  inch. 

The  amateur  is  more  likely  to  effect  a  part- 
nership between  the  camera  and  the  microscope 
than  between  the  camera  and  the  telescope.  The 
results  of  such  a  partnership  are  extremely  inter- 
esting, and  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why 
photo -micrography  or  photo -microscopy  should 
have  become  a  popular  as  well  as  a  scientifically 
important  department  of  photography. 

A  simple  method  of  uniting  the  camera  and 
microscope  is  to  place  the  camera  on  a  table  in 
the  ordinary  position  with  the  lens  removed. 
The  microscope  is  placed  in  a  horizontal  position, 
the  eyepiece  entering  the  camera  and  acting  in 
place  of  the  lens.  A  lamp  and  condenser  may  be 
placed  behind  the  microscope,  and  the  space  be- 
tween the  two  instruments  covered  with  a  focus- 
ing cloth. 

In  this  class  of  work  accurate  focusing  is, 
naturally,  of  great  importance,  and  a  focusing 
glass  or  other  magnifier  should  be  used  in  study- 
ing the  ground-glass  image.  Difficulty  may  arise, 
too,  from  the  fact  that  the  glasses  of  the  micro- 
scope are  seldom  corrected  for  the  actinic  rays, 
and  only  experiment  can  make  allowance  for  thia 
peculiarity. 


SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA.  211 

By  removing  the  eyepiece  of  the  microscope, 
and,  if  possible,  shortening  the  tube,  the  field  is 
made  wider.  Properly  the  interior  of  the  tube 
should  be  blackened  or  lined  with  black  velvet, 
so  that  it  shall  have  no  glitter  or  shine. 

For  careful  scientific  work  a  special  extension 
camera  is  used.  This  is  a  long  bellows  in  two  re- 
movable sections,  and  with  a  front  board  permit- 
ting a  satisfactory  union  with  the  microscope. 

The  rude  apparatus  for  making  lantern  slides 
may  be  turned  into  a  sort  of  low-power  micro- 
scopic medium,  if  the  camera  has  a  sufficiently 
long  bellows.  By  placing  the  camera  lens  close 
to  an  object  and  drawing  out  the  bellows,  an 
enlarged  image  may  be  procured.  This,  in  turn, 
may  be  enlarged  and  give  a  greatly  magnified 
image  of  the  original  object. 

"  Micro  -  photographs  "  is  the  name  given  to 
minute  photographs,  some  of  the  smallest  of 
which  have  been  placed  behind  minute  magnify- 
ing glasses  in  fancy  articles.  The  term  "  micro- 
photography  "  is  sometimes  used  by  mistake  for 
photo-m  icrogr  aphy . 

The  copying  of  pictures,  maps,  or  other  objects 
of  the  kind,  is  a  simple  but  exacting  process ;  for 
unless  the  work  is  done  accurately,  it  loses  its 
value.  A  picture  to  be  copied  must  be  placed  so 
that  it  has  upon  it  a  full  light,  evenly  distributed 
over  the  surface.  In  working  under  a  skylight 
the  picture  is  tilted  so  that  the  light  may  fall 


212     SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA. 

evenly.  The  camera  must  be  given  precisely  the 
same  angle  of  the  picture  surface.  If  the  picture 
is  an  oil  painting,  and  has  a  surface  that  glistens 
at  certain  angles  of  light,  care  must  be  taken  to 
place  it  in  a  position  that  prevents  this  glisten- 
ing. Study  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  lens, 
and  watch  in  the  focusing  for  unevenness  in  the 
lighting.  A  small  stop  should  be  used  during 
the  final  exposure. 

Copies  of  maps  or  line  drawings  should  be  de- 
veloped with  a  developer  that  gives  strong  blacks 
in  the  negative,  rather  than  with  one  that  gives 
softness  or  delicacy.  Thus,  either  pyro,  hydro- 
chinon,  or  any  of  the  more  brilliant  of  the  later 
developers  will  be  better  than  iron. 

I  have  suggested  that  there  are  a  multitude 
of  ways  in  which  photography  has  aided  science. 
There  are  many  ways,  also,  in  which  photography 
has  aided  art.  The  human  eye  is  easily  deceived. 
If  it  helps  to  teach  the  mind,  the  mind  has  much 
to  teach  the  eye.  When  we  know  where  to  look 
for  things,  we  begin  to  see  them.  When  we 
learn,  by  other  means  than  through  the  eye, 
about  the  actual  forms,  colors,  and  qualities  of 
things,  the  eye  begins  to  notice  more  particularly 
these  forms,  colors,  and  qualities.  Thus  we  find 
artists  studying  muscles  and  their  action,  in  order 
that  they  may  not  only  be  able  to  draw  the  human 
figure  itself,  but  the  clothed  figure  in  which  it 
might  be  thought  that  the  muscles  were  so  fai 


IN  ST.  AUGUSTINE 
Showing  Photograph  treated  with  India  ink  wash  for  illustration 

Plate  by  Electro-Light  Engraving  Co.,  New  York 


SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA.  213 


hidden  that  there  could  be  no  necessity  for  know- 
ing very  definitely  about  them.  The  truth  is, 
that  we  do  not  see  accurately  where  muscles  are, 
until  we  know  where  they  should  be.  It  is  this 
fact  that  underlies  all  the  study  of  art. 

The  eye,  then,  is  a  mere  window  for  the  reason 
behind  it.  A  good  illustration  of  the  careless- 
ness of  the  eye  is  furnished  by  any  of  the  older 
pictures  of  lightning.  You  have  seen  lightning 
flashes  in  old  paintings  and  prints,  —  a  series  of 
straight  lines,  broken  here  and  there.  When  the 
camera  came  to  report  the  lightning,  we  saw  that 
the  flashes  were  like  rivers  of  light,  produced  by 
the  traveling  of  the  electrical  sparks,  with  a  multi- 
tude of  tributary  rivers  of  fire,  and  nowhere  the 
slightest  resemblance  to  a  straight  or  even  ap- 
proximately straight  line.  Yet,  while  lightning 
has  always  been  the  same,  men  went  on,  century 
after  century,  looking  at  lightning  and  represent- 
ing it  in  the  straight  lines  with  which  we  are  so 
familiar.  It  is  now  quite  easy  for  us  to  see, 
when  we  know  better,  that  the  sparks  of  lightning 
run  in  lines  that  the  eye  may  only  see  in  rivers 
of  fire. 

In  fact,  the  history  of  art  shows  that  before 
men  get  to  looking  at  things  intelligently,  and 
actually  knowing  about  them,  they  represent 
them.  When  knowledge  comes,  —  sometimes 
through  the  eyes  of  some  one  who  sees  better 
than  others,  sometimes  through  the  experiments 


214     SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA. 

of  some  one  who  thinks  better  than  others,  men 
learn  to  imitate  things  and  to  secure  something 
like  a  truthful  likeness. 

We  see  this  again  in  animal  locomotion.  Before 
the  coming  of  instantaneous  photography,  people 
had  curiously  careless  methods  of  representing 
the  movements  of  the  horse.  They  represented 
the  horse's  movements  in  a  general  way.  To  a 
certain  extent,  motion  can  never  be  more  than 
represented  in  a  picture.  But  the  point  is,  that 
when  the  camera  gave  its  report,  we  began  to  look 
at  motion  more  carefully,  to  see  more  and  better ; 
and  to-day,  although  artists  do  not  yet  agree  to 
represent  locomotion  as  it  actually  appears  at  any 
one  movement,  —  holding  that  a  picture  should 
combine  the  impression  of  more  than  one  move- 
ment,—  there  can  no  longer  be  the  old-fashioned 
errors  in  the  alternation  of  the  feet  or  in  the  gen- 
eral position  of  the  legs  of  the  horse.  A  picture 
of  a  horse  with  all  four  legs  widely  extended 
seems  like  a  card-board  charger,  and  we  feel  like 
looking  for  the  string  that  holds  him  up. 

The  artist's  reason  for  not  drawing  the  moving 
horse  as  the  camera  does  is  that  "  arrested  mo- 
tion "  does  not  look  like  real  motion,  and  that, 
since  the  eye  does  not  see  one  phase  of  a  move- 
ment at  a  time,  there  must  be  a  compromise.  It 
is  true  that  the  eye  cannot  single  out  a  brief 
phase  of  a  movement,  because  any  impression 
that  strikes  the  retina  of  the  eye,  lingers  there  f 01 


SCIENCE,  ART,  AND  THE  CAMERA.  215 

about  the  seventh  part  of  a  second.  Thus  one 
impression  overlaps  another,  and  we  cannot  sep- 
arate the  different  parts  of  the  series. 

But  we  must  remember  that  the  eye  has 
learned  many  truths  about  motion  since  the  cam- 
era lent  its  aid,  and  when  we  know  how  a  horse 
gallops,  we  can  no  longer  seem  to  see  it  gallop  as 
we  once  did. 

If  knowledge  is  so  important  to  the  work  of  the 
eye,  we  can  see  that  anything  which  increases  the 
artist's  knowledge  of  things  is  an  aid  to  art. 

Since  art  is  not  merely  the  imitation  of  nature, 
but  an  artist's  ideas  about  nature,  the  better  the 
artist's  knowledge  about  facts,  the  more  valuable 
will  be  his  ideas  about  facts. 

It  is  because  art  is  not  the  imitation  of  nature 
that  we  cannot  call  photography  an  art.  Pho- 
tography, of  itself,  gives  us  only  a  reflection  of 
nature.  This  reflection  is  not  art,  but  only  more 
nature  —  nature  repeated  as  it  might  be  in  a  mir- 
ror. But  if  photography  is  of  itself  a  science,  it 
may  be  made  the  medium  of  expressing  artistic 
ideas,  as  every  reader  of  this  book  will  doubtless 
seek  to  prove.  Indeed,  photography  has  made  it 
very  difficult  at  times  to  say  where  science  leaves 
off  and  art  begins. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


"  BIRDS  OF  A  FEATHER." 

Photography  is  a  sociable  kind  of  enthusi- 
asm, and  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact 
that  photographic  clubs  should  have  come  to  be 
so  popular.  The  average  person,  young  or  old, 
would  rather  not  "  flock  all  by  himself  "  unless 
there  was  no  way  out  of  it.  In  photography 
the  grumblers  need  a  sympathetic  ear  into  which 
they  can  pour  tales  about  wicked  camera-makers, 
inferior  plates,  and  bad  weather ;  and  a  success 
has  twice  its  ordinary  charm  when  it  may  be  pic- 
tured to  an  admiring  company.  There  are  a  score 
of  reasons  why  people  with  cameras  should  estab- 
lish themselves  in  groups,  and  so  in  good  time 
came  the  photographic  club. 

At  first  the  photographic  club  meant  simply 
a  coterie  of  camera  people  who  assembled  now 
at  this  house,  now  at  that,  to  discuss  means,  com- 
pare results,  and  "  swap  "  formulas.  These  house 
gatherings,  still  very  popular,  long  afforded  an 
excellent  means  of  communication  between  people 
devoted  to  the  camera  hobby.  But  by  and  by 
the  need  for  permanent  quarters  with  some  kind 


"BIRDS  OF  A  FEATHER."  217 

of  an  equipment  brought  about  the  formation  of 
definitely  located  clubs  —  clubs  with  "  quarters  " 
more  or  less  ample,  generally  less,  of  course,  at 
the  beginning. 

These  clubrooms  became  the  centre  of  various 
interesting  photographic  movements.  If  the  grow- 
ing popularity  of  photography  increased  the  num- 
ber and  size  of  these  societies,  the  societies,  in 
turn,  naturally  became  one  of  the  chief  means  of 
popularizing  photography. 

To-day  amateur  photographic  societies  are  scat- 
tered over  the  whole  world.  In  every  civilized 
country  they  are  found  fitting  up  dens  and  meeting- 
rooms.  Japan  and  even  conservative  old  China 
have  not  been  able  to  resist  the  fascinations  of 
the  lens  and  dry  plate.  And  between  all  these 
groups,  in  New  York  and  in  Chicago,  in  London 
and  in  Vienna,  in  Melbourne  and  in  Tokio,  a  kind 
of  freemasonry  has  sprung  up  —  a  freemasonry 
rich  in  secrets  that  everybody  is  ready  and  eager 
to  tell.  Through  the  medium  of  a  thousand  and  one 
periodicals  and  pamphlets  these  societies  hear  a 
good  deal  of  each  other.  In  some  of  the  journals 
complete  stenographic  reports  of  society  meetings 
have  been  duly  unfolded,  so  that  when  an  amateur 
sneezes  at  a  meeting  in  New  York  the  amateur  in 
Boston  is  presented  with  an  accurate  record  of  the 
episode ;  and  any  little  spat  over  a  newly  discov- 
ered developing  formula  is  passed  down  to  his- 
tory without  a  hair's  breadth  of  mitigation. 


218  "BIRDS  OF  A  FEATHER." 

And  then  these  societies  communicate  directly 
with  each  other  by  the  medium  of  exchange.  Of 
late  years  some  interesting  movements  on  the  ex- 
change plan  have  been  successfully  undertaken. 
If  I  am  not  mistaken,  a  Boston  society  started  off 
with  a  group  of  lantern-slide  pictures  illustrating 
"  Picturesque  Boston,"  which  was  forwarded  for 
display  before  different  societies  of  a  similar  kind 
in  different  States.  Other  cities  have  recipro- 
cated ;  San  Francisco  has  sent  to  the  East  spirited 
"  Glimpses  of  California,"  and  the  pleasant  result 
of  photographic  enthusiasm  has  become  an  inter- 
esting feature  of  life  among  the  clubs.  Accom- 
panying each  of  these  groups  of  pictures,  fully 
prepared  for  projection  with  the  stereopticon,  is 
a  written  lecture  or  talk,  with  a  detailed  list 
showing  the  sequence  of  the  pictures. 

The  exchange  of  miscellaneous  lantern  pictures 
long  ago  justified  the  forming  of  a  regularly  or- 
ganized Lantern  Slide  Interchange,  and  the  pic- 
tures have  not  only  passed  from  State  to  State, 
but  are  crossing  the  Atlantic  in  exchange  with 
European  clubs. 

In  fact,  the  ease  with  which  a  photographic  neg- 
ative may  be  converted  into  a  lantern  positive  and 
projected  upon  a  screen  before  an  audience,  has 
given  amateur  societies  their  chief  source  of  enter- 
tainment and  profit.  The  member  who  has  car- 
ried his  camera  through  Europe  is  made  to  stand 
and  deliver  on  his  return,  and  entertains  a  gather- 


"BIRDS  OF  A  FEATHER.11  219 

ing  in  the  club  rooms  with  a  photographic  record 
of  his  journey. 

Perhaps  it  has  been  the  delight  of  telling  ad- 
venturous stories  and  showing  adventure  -  telling 
pictures  that  has  led  amateurs  to  enter  dangerous 
paths  in  search  of  the  picturesque.  Both  pho- 
tographer and  camera  have  sometimes  toppled 
over  precipices  ;  but  happily  photography  is  not, 
taken  altogether,  a  very  dangerous  pursuit.  Most 
picture-makers  are  willing,  if  they  are  not  com- 
pelled, to  confine  themselves  to  familiar  and  even 
commonplace  themes.  A  few  may  wish  they 
could  get  into  the  Congo  jungles  and  "  snap  "  a 
lion  or  two ;  but  the  majority  are  wisely  willing  to 
take  their  photography  with  the  danger  left  out. 

The  ambitious  amateur  is  restrained,  too,  by 
the  fact  that  so  much  that  is  done  out  of  doors  is 
done  in  groups.  The  club  makes  photographic  ex- 
cursions. It  settles  upon  a  plan  of  action  and 
then  swoops  down  upon  beach,  river,  or  country- 
side in  full  force,  bristling  with  cameras,  working 
sometimes  with  the  precision  of  an  army,  but 
oftener  with  the  erratic  movements  of  a  skirmish 
line. 

These  photographic  excursions  have  their  adven- 
tures in  a  small  way  :  if  it  does  not  always  rain, 
it  very  often  tries  to  do  so  ;  boats  and  trains  stop 
running  when  they  are  not  expected  to  do  anything 
of  the  kind;  parks  are  closed,  restaurants  are 
barren  of  supplies,  and  roads  are  not  always  what 


220  "BIRDS  OF  A  FEATHER." 


they  have  been  claimed  to  be.  Of  course  the 
right-minded  member  always  sees  additional  fun 
in  these  situations.  The  unexpected  that  is  al- 
ways happening  is  as  picturesque  as  the  things 
mentioned  in  the  programme.  The  hungriest 
member  in  the  midst  of  his  inquiries  is  a  capital 
subject  for  a  picture.  And  the  fellow  who  is  al- 
ways saying,  —  or  who,  by  the  expression  of  his 
face,  is  at  least  plainly  thinking,  —  Who  proposed 
this  trip,  anyhow?  should  always  be  caught  by 
the  "  detective  "  member  in  the  midst  of  his  de- 
nunciations. In  fact,  on  the  average  trip  the 
club  itself  is  the  best  subject.  It  has  plenty  of 
variety.    It  never  looks  twice  the  same  way. 

Considerable  cooperative  work  of  a  serious 
kind  has  recently  been  accomplished  by  photo- 
graphic societies.  It  has  become  the  excellent 
fashion  for  clubs  to  make  organized  reports  of 
historical  events.  Public  celebrations  are  photo- 
graphed in  great  detail  from  every  point  of  view, 
so  that  future  generations  will  find  little  left  to 
tax  the  imagination.  It  is  grimly  said  that  our 
descendants  will  know  beyond  dispute  whether  the 
great  men  of  this  era  (not  to  mention  the  "  small 
fry")  turned  their  toes  in  or  out  when  they 
walked. 

It  might  be  interesting  to  offer  here  some  hints 
to  those  who  may  be  inclined  to  organize  photo- 
graphic clubs  ;  but  this  would  be  made  very  diffi- 
cult by  the  fact  that  the  arrangement  of  a  club 


M  BIBDS  OF  A  FEATHER."  221 

and  its  quarters  must  depend  entirely  upon  the 
number  of  the  people  who  are  to  compose  it  and 
the  local  conditions. 

I  find  among  my  photographic  papers  this  title 
and  statement  of  principles,  adopted  by  a  certain 
society :  — 

Sun  and  Company. 

Limited  to  30  Amateur  Photographers. 

For  the  circulation  and  criticism  of  photographs 
entirely  the  work  of  members,  and  for  a  general 
interchange  of  ideas,  with  a  view  to  mutual  ad- 
vancement in  the  science  and  art  of  photography. 

A  club  may  begin  with  a  general  aim  of  this 
kind,  and  when  its  numbers  are  sufficient  it  may 
find  rooms  and  undertake  as  much  in  the  way  of 
dark-rooms  and  apparatus  as  its  resources  may 
permit.  Few  amateurs  are  able  to  own  copying, 
enlarging,  or  projecting  outfits  ;  yet  the  coopera- 
tion of  even  a  comparatively  few  people  will  make 
it  possible  to  own  these  outfits  without  great  ex- 
pense, for  the  ownership  need  not  imply  the  hir- 
ing of  rooms,  though  there  are  many  obstacles  to 
a  "  house  to  house  "  ownership. 

A  club  dark-room  should  have  accommodations 
for  at  least  two  workers.  There  should  be  rigid 
rules  as  to  care  and  cleanliness.  "  Lockers " 
may  be  devised  for  storing  the  materials  and  uten- 
sils of  individual  members.  The  general  meeting 
room  may  have  the  double  use  of  an  operating 


222  "BIRDS  OF  A  FEATHEB." 

room  or  portrait  gallery  in  the  daytime  and  an 
assembly  or  exhibition  room  at  night. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  social  side  of  a 
photographic  club  is  an  agreeable  feature  of  its 
character,  but  the  social  spirit  should  not  obscure 
the  serious  purposes  of  the  organization. 


APPENDIX. 


NOTES  ON  THE  CHEMISTRY  OF  PHOTO- 
GRAPHY. 

Light  itself  is  a  chemical  agent  having  the  power  to 
produce  both  combination  and  decomposition.  Professor 
Meldola  groups  these  instances  of  the  action  of  light : 
Chlorine  water  under  the  influence  of  light  gradually 
becomes  acid  from  the  formation  of  hydrochloric  acid, 
whilst  oxygen  is  liberated.  An  aqueous  solution  of 
hydriodic  acid  is  gradually  decomposed  by  light  and  be- 
comes brown  from  the  liberation  of  iodine.  In  the 
latter  instance  light  is  actually  an  accelerator,  as  the 
same  decomposition  will  go  on  in  the  dark.  An  ethereal 
or  alcoholic  solution  of  ferric  chloride  is  reduced  by 
light.  Uranic  salts  in  contact  with  organic  substances, 
such  as  alcohol,  ether,  glycerol,  paper,  etc.,  behave  like 
the  ferric  compounds  and  undergo  reduction  on  expos- 
ure to  light.  Important  processes  are  based  on  the  fact 
that  light  not  only  reduces  chromatized  gelatine,  but 
renders  the  gelatine  insoluble. 

.  .  .  The  action  of  light  on  silver  salts  has  been 
sketched  early  in  this  volume.  In  certain  conditions 
silver  does  not  show  change  except  when  in  the  presence 
of  organic  matter.  Thus  the  nitrate  of  silver  solution 
used  in  silvering  paper  remains  perfectly  clear  and 


224  APPENDIX. 

transparent  in  the  jar,  even  when  exposed  to  full  sun- 
light. But  the  moment  this  fluid  touches  the  finger  or 
a  sheet  of  paper,  light  begins  to  turn  it  brown. 

.  .  .  The  chemical  changes  which  produce  a  finished 
negative  are,  progressively,  the  change  produced  by- 
light,  the  further  change  produced  by  development,  and 
the  final  change  produced  by  the  "  hypo  "  or  thiosul- 
phate.  The  rapidity  of  a  plate  depends,  not  merely 
upon  the  preparation  of  the  film,  but  upon  the  nature  of 
the  developer  in  combination  with  the  elements  of  the 
"  sensitizer  "  on  the  film. 

.  .  .  By  "  Draper's  law  "  it  appears  that  only  the 
rays  of  light  that  are  absorbed  by  the  sensitized  surface 
produce  any  effect.  But  Dr.  Vogel  has  explained  that 
by  the  use  of  more  than  one  element,  as  by  the  addition 
of  iodide  to  bromide,  more  than  one  sort  of  light  rays  is 
absorbed.  It  is  by  the  following  out  of  this  hint  that 
orthochromatic,  or  so-called  "  color  -  sensitive,"  plates 
are  being  produced.  An  excessive  absorption  or  an  ex- 
cessive action  in  the  developer  destroys  the  possibility 
of  a  perfect  image. 

.  .  .  In  the  wet-plate  process  silver  nitrate  is  reduced 
by  substances  which  may  produce  oxidation,  the  image 
growing  by  a  deposit  of  silver  upon  that  already  on  the 
film.  For  this  process  an  acid  developer  is  necessary. 
In  the  dry-plate  process  an  alkaline  developer  is  used 
to  reduce  the  photo-salt  to  metallic  silver.  A  wet 
plate  with  silver  nitrate  present  as  a  sensitizer  would  be 
ruined  by  an  alkaline  developer.  The  gelatine  emul- 
sion dry  plate  having  no  free  silver  nitrate,  a  strong  de- 
veloper may  be  used  ;  and  by  the  combination  of  the 
more  sensitive  surface  and  the  stronger  developer,  in- 
stantaneous photography  becomes  possible. 


APPENDIX. 


225 


..."  Orthochromatic  "  plates  or  "  color-sensitive  " 
plates,  so  called,  are  prepared  with  a  view  to  over- 
coming the  deficiency  of  ordinary  plates  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  non-actinic  or  comparatively  non-actinic 
colors.  Dr.  Vogel  tinted  collodion  films  with  coal-tar 
dyes  and  discovered  that  the  films  were  thereby  ren- 
dered more  sensitive  to  yellow  and  greenish  yellow. 
Gelatine  emulsion  plates  are  now  treated  with  coloring 
matter,  sometimes  in  the  setting  of  the  emulsion  itself, 
sometimes  by  subsequent  immersion.  By  means  of 
plates  treated  in  this  way  a  material  advance  has  been 
made  in  the  interpretation  of  natural  colors.  Doubt- 
less in  due  time  all  plates  used  in  photography  will  be 
so  treated. 

.  .  .  Pure  water  is  less  important  in  some  phases  of 
photographic  work  than  in  others,  but  it  is  always  de- 
sirable. Distilled  water  is  the  ideal.  A  distilling  ap- 
paratus is  easily  procured,  distillation  simply  being  the 
gathering  of  condensed  steam.  Filtered  rain  water  is 
the  next  best  thing  to  distilled  water.  Melted  snow 
is  regarded  as  desirable  for  its  purity.  River  water  of 
the  better  kind  is  safer  than  well  water. 

...  To  test  the  acidity  or  alkalinity  of  a  solution, 
strips  of  paper  stained  with  litmus  are  used.  These 
should  be  kept  in  an  air-tight  bottle.  The  paper  is 
made  in  two  colors  —  an  acid  solution  turning  the  blue 
paper  red,  and  an  alkaline  solution  turning  the  red 
paper  blue. 

.  .  .  A  solution  of  a  substance  containing  all  of  the 
substance  that  will  remain  in  solution  and  not  deposit 
is  called  a  "  saturated  solution."  Some  substances  dis- 
solve quickly  ;  others  will  not  dissolve  readily  without 
long  shaking  or  the  use  of  boiling  water.     In  cold 


226 


APPENDIX. 


weather  there  will  be  a  precipitation  in  certain  solutions, 
as  temperature  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  quantity 
of  a  substance  that  water  will  hold  in  solution.  For 
this  reason  it  is  well  to  have  the  dark-room  free  from 
extremes  of  temperature.  In  "  stock  solutions  "  an  ex- 
cess of  a  substance  that  settles  in  the  bottom  of  the 
bottle  may  be  left  in  the  bottle.  The  subsequent  addi- 
tion of  water  will  take  up  the  remainder.  Any  drug- 
gist will  explain  how  to  use  filtering  paper. 

.  .  .  The  drops  of  different  fluids  vary  in  size,  a 
fact  which  must  be  remembered  in  following  certain 
chemical  prescriptions.  Dr.  Eder,  in  the  following 
table,  gives  the  number  of  drops  required  to  make  a 
cubic  centimeter,  which  equals  17  minims  : 


Water  .... 

20 

Castor  oil    .    .  . 

.  44 

Hydrochloric  acid 

20 

.  47 

Nitric  acid  .    .  . 

27 

Oil  of  turpentine  . 

.  55 

Sulphuric  acid  . 

28 

.  62 

Acetic  acid     .  . 

38 

.  83 

PHOTOGRAPHY  IN  COLORS. 

Immense  labor  has  been  expended  in  recent  years 
on  efforts  to  secure  photographs  in  the  colors  of  nature. 

At  present  the  nearest  approach  to  a  photograph  in 
colors  seems  to  be  the  image  produced  by  the  making 
of  three  different  negatives  through  violet,  red,  and 
green  color  screens,  these  products  being  superimposed 
in  the  final  image.  Accurate  and  beautiful  images  in 
color  have  thus  been  produced  by  Mr.  Ives  of  Phila- 
delphia, who  has  patented  an  instrument,  designed  to 
accomplish  this  sort  of  combination  photography,  called 
the  Helidromscope. 


APPENDIX. 


227 


TABLE  OF  THE  ELEMENTS  : 

THEIR  SYMBOLS,  ATOMIC  WEIGHTS,  AND  EQUIVALENTS. 

Compiled  by  A.  H.  Elliott,  Ph.  D.,  from  Watts' 11  Dictionary  of 
Chemistry,"  1888. 


Sym- 
bol. 


Atomic 
Weight. 


Al 

Sb 

As 

Ba 

Be 

Bi 

B 

Br 

Cd 

Cs 

Ca 

C 

Ce 

CI 

Cr 

Co 

Cu 

Di 

E 

F 

Ga 

Au 

H 

In 

I 

Ir 

Fe 

La 

Pb 

Li 

Mg 

Mn 


27.02 
120. 

74.9 
136.8 

9.08 
208. 

10.09 

79.75 
112. 
133. 

39.9 

11.97 
139.9 

35.37 

52.4 

59. 

63.2 
143.0 
165.9 

19.1 

69. 
197. 

1. 
113.4 
126.53 
192.5 

55.9 
138.5 
206.4 
7.01 

24. 

55. 


Equiva- 
lent. 


9.007 

40. 

24.97 

68.4 

4.54 

69.33 
3.66 

79.75 

56. 
132.7 

19.95 
2.99 

46.6 

35.37 

26.2 

29.5 

31.6 

47.8 

55.3 

19.1 

23. 

65.66 
1. 

37.8 
126.53 

48.125 

27.95 

46.17 
103.2 
7.01 

12. 

27.5 


Sym- 
bol. 


Mercury . . 
Molybdenum 

Nickel  

Niobium  

Nitrogen  

Osmium .... 

Oxygen  

Palladium  . . 
Phosphorus. 
Platinum . . . 
Potassium  . . 
Rhodium  . . . 
Rubidium. . . 
Ruthenium  . 
Selenium . . . 

Silicon  

Silver  

Sodium  

Strontium  . . 

Sulphur  

Tantalum.  .. 
Tellurium  . . 
Thallium  . . . 
Thorium. . .. 

Tin  

Titanium . . . 
Tungsten . . . 
Uranium. . . . 
Vanadium  . . 

Yttrium  

Zinc ,  

Zirconium . . 


Hg 

Mo 

Ni 

Nb 

N 

Os 

O 

Pd 

P 

Pt 

K 

Ro 

Rb 

Ru 

Se 

Si 

Ag 

Na 

Sr 

S 

Ta 

Te 

Tl 

Th 

Sn 

Ti 

W 

U 

V 

Y 

Zn 

Zr 


Atomic 
Weight. 


199.8 
95.8 
58.6 
94. 
14.01 

193. 
15.96 

106.2 
30.96 

194.3 
39.04 

104. 
85.2 

104.4 
78.8 
28.3 

107.66 
23. 
87.3 
31.98 

182. 

125. 

203.64 

231.87 

117.8 
48.0 

183.6 

240. 
51.2 
89.6 
65.2 
90. 


Note.  —  The  equivalent  numbers  are  the  smallest  quantities  of  the  ele- 
ment that  unite  with  one  part  of  hydrogen,  eight  parts  of  oxygen,  or  thirty- 
five  parts  of  chlorine. 


228 


APPENDIX. 


ENGLISH  WEIGHTS  AND  MEASURES. 

It  is  a  great  misfortune  that  there  should  be  so 
much  confusion  as  to  weights  and  measures.  While 
all  chemicals  are  usually  sold  by  avoirdupois  weight, 
formulas  are  usually  written  in  apothecaries'  weight. 
The  advantage  of  a  general  adoption  of  the  French 
metric  system  has  frequently  been  suggested. 

apothecaries'  weight, 
(used  in  formulas.) 

SOLID  MEASURE. 

1  scruple  =  20  grains. 
1  dram  =  60  grains. 
1  ounce  =  480  grains. 
1  pound  =  5760  grains. 

FLUID. 

60  minims  =  1  fluid  dram. 

8  drams  =  1  ounce. 
20  ounces  =  1  pint. 
8  pints     =  1  gallon. 

AVOIRDUPOIS  WEIGHT. 

(used  in  the  sale  of  chemicals.) 
27 hi  grains  =  1  dram  =  27 H  grains. 
16    drams  =  1  ounce  =  4371  grains. 
16    ounces  =  1  pound  =  7000  grains. 


20  grains  = 
3  scruples  = 
8  drams  = 

12  ounces  — 


TROY  WEIGHT. 

(used  in  the  sale  of  precious  metals.) 
24  grains  =  1  pennyweight  =     24  grains. 

20  pennyweights  =  1  ounce  =  480  grains. 

12  ounces  =  1  pound  =  5760  grains. 


APPENDIX. 


229 


FRENCH  WEIGHTS  AND  MEASURES 

AND  THEIR  EQUIVALENTS  IN  ENGLISH. 

1    cubic  centimetre  =  17  minims  (nearly). 
3£     "  "         =1  dram. 

28.4    "  "         =1  ounce. 

100     "  "         =3  ounces  4  drams  9  minims. 

50     «  "  =1  ounce   6  drams  5  minims. 

1000     "  "  )  nn    .  . 

or  1  litre,  =  to  >      =  35  ounces  1  dram  36  minims. 
61  cubic  inches  ) 

The  unit  of  French  liquid  measure  is  the  cubic  cen- 
timetre, measuring  nearly  17  minims,  and  weighing 
15.4  grains  or  1  gramme.  The  unit  of  French  weights 
is  the  gramme,  equal  to  15.4  grains. 


STEREOSCOPIC  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

To  make  stereoscopic  photographs  a  camera  fitted 
with  matched  lenses  is  required.  The  lenses  are  gene- 
rally mounted  three  and  a  half  inches  apart,  and  for  in- 
stantaneous views  the  exposures  are  necessarily  simul- 
taneous, and  should  be  approximately  so  in  any  case. 
The  images  are  transposed  when  mounted. 


230 


APPENDIX. 


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APPENDIX. 


231 


FORMULAS  FOR  DEVELOPING  DRY  PLATES. 

WITH  PYROGALLOL. 
carbutt's 
No.  1. 

Distilled  or  ice  water  10  ounces. 

Sulphuric  acid  1  dram. 

Sulphite  of  soda  crystals  4  ounces. 

Add  Schering  pyro  1  ounce,  and  water  to  make  16  fluid  ounces. 

No.  2. 

Water  10  ounces. 

Soda  sulphite  crystals     ...  2  ounces. 

Soda  carbonate  crystals   ...  2  ounces  (or  dry  gran.  1  oz. ). 

Potash  carbonate  1  ounce. 

Dissolve,  and  add  water  to  make  measure  16  fluid  ounces. 
No.  3. 

Bromide  of  sodium  or  potassium,  \  ounce.    Water,  5  ounces. 

Developer. —  Dilute  1  ounce  of  No.  2  with  7  ounces  of  water 
for  cold  weather,  and  10  to  12  of  water  in  summer.  To  3  ounces 
of  dilute  No.  2  add  \\  drams  of  No.  1.  The  more  pyro  the 
denser  the  negative,  and  vice  versa. 

Eastman's. 
Pyrogallol  Solution. 

Pyrogallic  acid  \  ounce. 

Nitrous  or  sulphuric  acid  20  minims. 

Water  32  ounces. 

Ammonia  Solution. 

Ammonia,  stronger  (900)   1  ounce. 

Bromide  of  potassium   1  dram. 

Water   32  ounces. 

Soda  Solution. 

Carbonate  of  soda  (crystals)  ....  4  ounces. 

Sulphite  of  soda       "   4  ounces. 

Water   .    .  32  ounces. 


232 


APPENDIX. 


Potash  Solution. 

Carbonate  of  potash  3  ounces. 

Sulphite  of  soda  4  ounces. 

Water  32  ounces. 

For  the  ammonia  developer  use  -J-  ounce  each  of  pyro  and  am* 
monia  solutions  and  3  ounces  of  water. 

For  the  soda  developer,  use  1  ounce  each  of  pyro  and  soda 
solutions  and  2  ounces  of  water. 

For  the  potash  developer,  use  1  ounce  each  of  the  pyro  and 
potash  solutions  and  2  ounces  of  water. 

For  the  potash  and  soda  developer,  use  -J  ounce  each  of  soda 
and  potash  solutions,  1  ounce  pyro  solution,  and  2  ounces  of 
water. 

Bestrainer  For  Over-exposure. 

Bromide  of  potassium  1  ounce. 

Water  6  ounces. 

A  few  drops  to  be  used  for  over-exposure  only. 

Cramer's 
Alkali  Solution. 

Water  60  ounces. 

Carbonate  of  soda  (crystals)  5  ounces. 

Sulphite  of  soda       "  10  ounces. 

Pyro  Solution. 

Distilled  or  pure  ice  water  6  ounces. 

Sulphuric  acid  15  minims. 

Sulphite  of  soda  (crystals)  1  dram. 

Pyrogallic  acid  1  ounce. 

Eight  grains  of  dry  pyro  may  be  substituted  for  1  dram  of 
this  solution. 

Mix  in  the  following  proportions :  — 

Pyro  solution  1  dram. 

Alkaline  solution  1  ounce. 

(In  winter)  Tepid  water  2  ounces. 

(In  summer)  Cold  water    .   •    .    .     3  to  5  ounces. 


APPENDIX.  233 
WITH  EIKONOGEN. 

HARVARD. 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  of  soda  3  ounces. 

Sulphuric  acid  J  ounce. 

Eikonogen  1  to  1£  ounces. 

Water   ....  60  ounces. 

No.  2. 

Carbonate  of  soda  1  ounce. 

Water  24  ounces. 


Use  (3)  parts  of  No.  1,  one  part  of  No.  2.  The  mixture  may 
be  used  repeatedly.  For  under-exposed  negatives  dilute,  using 
freshly  united  No.  1,  and  No.  2. 

WITH  PABAMIDOPHENOL, 


Stanley's. 

Hodinal  i  ounce. 

Sulphite  of  soda,  40  hydrometer  test  .  .  2  ounces. 
Water  14  ounces. 

Developer.    Use  full  strength. 

seed's.  ' 
No.  1. 

Paramidophenol  i  ounce. 

Ferrocyanide  of  potassium  3£  ounces. 

Sulphite  of  sodium  4f  ounces. 

Water  75  ounces. 

Developer.    Equal  parts  of  each. 

WITH  HYDROCHINON  (FOR  LANTERN  SLIDES). 

hart's  formula. 

Water  4  ounces. 

Sulphate  of  soda  2  drams. 

Carbonate  of  soda  2  drams. 

Phosphate  of  soda  80  grains. 

Hydrochinon  25  grains. 


234 


APPENDIX. 


EIKONOGEN  AND  HYDROCHINON. 
seed's. 
No.  1. 

Sodium  sulphite  solution  to  test  30  .    .    .    34  ounces. 

Eikonogen   240  grains. 

Hydrochinon  60  grains. 

No.  2. 

Carbonate  of  potash  solution  to  test  50. 
To  develop  take 

No.  1  2  ounces. 

No.  2  .    .    ,  1  ounce. 

t  Water  1  ounce. 

More  water  gives  less  contrast  and  density. 

t  For  double-coated  plates  use  5  ounces  of  water. 


i"  X-RAY  "  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

The  remarkable  discovery  of  Professor  Roentgen  has 
added  a  new  phase  to  photography.  The  action  of  the 
so-called  "x-rays"  offers  new  testimony  concerning  the 
mysteries  of  chemical  action  on  sensitive  surfaces,  as 
well  as  revelations  concerning  invisible  light,  of  which 
this  volume  speaks  in  another  place.  The  rays  emanat- 
ing from  a  Crooke's  vacuum  tube  penetrate  substances 
absolutely  opaque  to  the  eye,  and  surgery  is  enabled  to 
pursue  new  and  invaluable  researches  by  the  aid  of 
these  rays,  the  camera  recording  conditions  in  the  body 
of  a  living  subject  which  formerly  were  determinable 
only  by  the  aid  of  the  knife. 


APPENDIX. 


235 


EXPLANATION  OF  CERTAIN  PHOTO- 
GRAPHIC TERMS. 

Achromatic.  A  term  applied  to  lenses  that  have 
been  so  treated  that  the  images  they  form  are  free  from 
rims  or  fringes  of  color.  A  lens  not  free  from  this 
photographic  defect  is  said  to  have  chromatic  aberra~ 
tion. 

Aplanatic.  Applied  to  lenses  that  have  been  treated 
for  both  spherical  and  chromatic  aberration. 

Depth  of  focus.  A  lens  is  said  to  have  great  depth 
of  focus  when  it  gives  clear  images  of  objects  at  widely- 
different  distances  from  the  lens. 

Equivalent  focus.  This  term  is  generally  used  to 
describe  the  distance  between  the  diaphragm  slot  in  a 
doublet  lens  and  the  focusing  screen  or  ground  glass 
when  the  lens  has  been  focused  on  distant  objects. 

Halation.  The  radiation  of  the  high  lights  in  a 
negative  beyond  the  line  of  adjoining  shadows.  It  is 
caused  by  reflection  in  the  glass  plate  and  from  certain 
chemical  conditions,  but  is  very  largely  remedied  by 
"  backing  "  the  plate  with  some  dark-colored  substance, 
such  as  a  mixture  of  powdered  burnt  sienna,  gum,  gly- 
cerine and  water.  On  films  there  is  very  little  hala- 
tion, a  fact  explained  by  the  circumstance  that  they 
are  backed  by  an  opaque  surface. 

Macro-photography.  The  production  of  enlarged 
photographs. 

Measles.  A  spotty  defect  in  prints  due  to  imperfect 
fixing. 

Micro-photography.  The  production  of  minute  pho- 
tographs. 


236 


APPENDIX. 


Photo-micrography.  The  photographing  of  micro- 
scopic objects. 

Restrainer.  Any  ingredient  used  to  retard  the  ac- 
tion of  a  developer.  Anything  used  for  the  opposite 
purpose  is  an  accelerator. 

Retouching.  Inaccurate  term  used  to  describe  the 
treatment  of  the  image  with  pencil  or  brush  to  remove 
blemishes,  or  modify  the  effect. 

Solar  camera.  A  camera  used  for  enlarging  by  day- 
light. 

Varnishing.  Method  used  to  preserve  the  surface 
of  the  negative  and  as  a  basis  for  "  retouching  "  treat- 
ment. The  negative  is  first  warmed;  the  varnish  is 
then  poured  on,  the  plate  being  held  by  one  corner  in  a 
flat  position  in  the  left  hand.  By  slightly  tilting  the 
plate  the  varnish  soon  covers  the  surface  and  is  drained 
off  at  one  corner.  This  should  be  practiced  on  a  spoiled 
negative,  for  considerable  dexterity  is  required  to  insure 
against  ruining  the  negative. 


APPENDIX. 


237 


TABLE  FOR  ENLARGEMENTS. 

From  the  British  Journal  of  Photography  Almanac. 


TIMES  OF  ENLARGEMENT  AND  REDUCTION. 


Lens, 
inches. 
2 

1  in. 
4 
4 

2  in. 
6 
3 

3  in. 

8 

2f 

4  in. 
10 

2£ 

5  in. 
12 

2f 

6  in. 
14 

24 

7  in. 
16 

92 

8  in. 
18 

2* 

5 
5 

33 

*** 

10 

33 

12! 

34 

15 
3 

17!- 
2H 

■"12 

20 

96 

22! 
2*4 

3 

6 
6 

9 
41 

12 
4 

15 

33 

18 

33 

21 

34 

24 
35 

°7 

27 
33 

3! 

7 
7 

51 
"4 

14 

4| 

17! 
4f 

21 

44 

24! 

28 
4 

31! 

3}I 

"15 

4 

8 
8 

12 

6 

~16 

5i 

20 
5 

24 
54 

28 
4% 

32 
44 
^7 

36 
44 

*! 

9 
9 

13| 

6f 

18 

6 

22! 
5| 

27 
5f 

31! 
5i 

36 
5f 

40! 

5 

10  * 
10 

15 

7! 

20 
6§ 

"25 

64 

30 
6 

35 
5f 

40 
5f 

45 

5§ 

5* 

11 
11 

161 
84 

22 

H 

27! 
6g 

33 
6! 

38! 

44 

67 

49! 
6T3s 

6 

12 
12 

18 
9 

24 
8 

30 
7! 

36 

7! 

42 
7 

48 
6? 

54 
6| 

7 

14 
14 

21 
10! 

28 
9! 

35 
8f 

42 

8§ 

49 

8! 

56 
8 

63 
7| 

8 

16 
16 

24 
12 

32 

io§ 

40 
10 

48 

9§ 

56 
9! 

64 
9! 

72 
9 

9 

18 
18 

27 
13! 

36 
12 

45 
114 

54 
lOf 

63 

10! 

72 
lOf 

81 

10! 

The  object  of  this  table  is  to  enable  any  manipulator  who  is  about  to  en- 
large (or  reduce)  a  copy  any  given  number  of  times,  to  do  so  without 
troublesome  calculation.  It  is  assumed  that  the  photographer  knows  ex- 
actly what  the  focus  of  his  lens  is,  and  that  he  is  able  to  measure  accurately 
from  its  optical  centre.  The  use  of  the  table  will  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing illustration :  A  photographer  has  a  carte  to  enlarge  to  four  times  its 
size,  and  the  lens  he  intends  employing  is  one  of  six  inches  equivalent  focus. 
He  must,  therefore,  look  for  4  on  the  upper  horizontal  line,  and  for  6  in 
the  first  vertical  column,  and  carry  his  eye  to  where  these  two  join,  which 
will  be  at  30  —  7!-  The  greater  of  these  is  the  distance  the  sensitive  plate 
must  be  from  the  centre  of  the  lens ;  and  the  lesser,  the  distance  of  the 
picture  to  be  copied.  To  reduce  a  picture  any  given  number  of  times  the 
same  method  must  be  followed,  but  in  this  case  the  greater  number  will 
represent  the  distance  between  the  lens  and  the  picture  to  be  copied ;  the 
latter,  that  between  the  lens  and  the  sensitive  plate.  This  explanation  will 
be  sufficient  for  every  case  of  enlargement  or  reduction. 

If  the  focus  of  the  lens  be  twelve  inches,  as  this  number  is  not  in  the 
column  of  focal  lengths,  look  out  for  6  in  this  column  and  multiply  by  2,  and 
so  on  with  any  other  numbers. 


238 


APPENDIX. 


BOOKS  FOR  REFERENCE. 

Abney,  Captain  W.  de  W.  Photography  with  Emul- 
sions.   Treatise  on  Photography. 

Brothers j  A.  Photography  :  Its  History,  Processes, 
and  Materials. 

Burbank,  Rev.  H.  W.  The  Photographic  Negative. 
Photographic  Printing  Methods. 

Burton,  W.  K.  Photographic  Printing  and  Photo- 
mechanical Processes.  Modern  Photography.  Pho- 
tographic Optics. 

Dawson,  George.    Dictionary  of  Photography. 

Duchochois,  P.  C.  Photographic  Reproduction  Pro- 
cesses.   Lighting  in  Photographic  Studios. 

Eder,  Dr.  J.  M.    Chemical  Effect  of  the  Spectrum. 

Eder,  Dr.  J.  M.  Modern  Dry  Plate  or  Emulsion 
Photography. 

Emerson,  P.  H.    Naturalistic  Photography. 

Harrison,  W.  Jerome.    History  of  Photography. 

Hepworth,  T.  C.    The  Book  of  the  Lantern. 

Jennings,  I.  H.  How  to  Photograph  Microscopic 
Objects. 

Meldola,  Raphael.  The  Chemistry  of  Photography. 

Pringle,  Andrew.  Practical  Photo  -  Micrography. 
The  Optical  Lantern.  Lantern  Slides  by  Photo- 
graphic Methods. 

Robinson,  H.  P.  Picture  Making  by  Photography. 
The  Studio  and  what  to  do  in  It.  Pictorial  Effect  in 
Photography.  The  Art  and  Practice  of  Silver  Print- 
ing.   Letters  on  Landscape  Photography. 

Sinclair,  George  L.  Dry-Plate  Making  for  Amateurs. 


APPENDIX, 


239 


Taylor,  J.  Traill.  Optics  of  Photography  and  Pho- 
tographic Lenses. 

Tissaudier,  Gaston.  History  and  Handbook  of  Pho- 
tography. 

Vogel,  Herman.  Chemistry  of  Light  and  Photography. 

Progress  of  Photography. 
Wall,  E.  J.    Dictionary  of  Photography. 
Wilson,  Edward  L.  Quarter  Century  in  Photography. 

Photographies. 
Woodbury,  Walter  E.    The  Encyclopaedic  Dictionary 

of  Photography. 


INDEX. 


Abebration,  spherical,  64,  66 ;  chro- 
matic, 64. 
Abney,  Capt.  W.  de  W.,  57. 
Albumen,  used  in  coating  plates,  45. 
*«  Amateur,"  49,  50. 
Arago,  33. 

Art  and  the  camera,  212,  215. 
Astronomy,   photography's  service 
to,  206-210. 

Backgrounds,  82. 

Bacon,  Roger,  and  telescope,  5. 

Bellini,  55. 

Bennett,  56. 

"  Blue  prints,"  177,  178. 
Bolton,  W.  B.,  55. 
Books  for  reference,  238. 

Camera,  modern  characteristics,  58- 
75 ;  in  portraiture,  90,  91 ;  in  in- 
teriors, 91-97 ;  effect  of  move- 
ment in,  113,  114,  127;  hand 
camera,  75,  122-130 ;  arranged  for 
making  lantern-slides,  196-198  ;  for 
enlargements,  200-203 ;  and  tele- 
scope, 208-210;  and  microscope, 
210,  211. 

Camera  lucida,  18. 

Camera  obscura,  6. 

Chemistry,  notes  on,  223-226. 

Chevalier,  the  optician,  21. 

Chinese  tradition,  2. 

Clubs,  photographic,  216'. 

Collodion  process,  46-57. 

Colors,  photography  in,  229. 

Copying,  211,  212. 

Daguerre,  Louis  Jacques  Mande", 
hears  of  Niepce,  26 ;  begins  his 
experiments,  28 ;  partnership  with 
Niepce,  29 ;  develops  and  fixes  im- 
age, 32  ;  peDsioned,  33  ;  death,  39. 

Daguerreotype,  characteristics,  35, 
36,  39  ;  early  sitters  for,  37  ;  popu- 
larity in  United  States,  38. 

Dallmeyer,  triple  achromatic  lens, 
66 ;  telo-photographic  lens,  67,  68, 
209,  210. 


Dark-room,  136-147  ;  for  clubs,  231. 
Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  experiments, 
15,  16. 

"Detective"  camera.  See  Hand 
Camera. 

Developer,  theoretical  action  of,  131- 
134. 

Developing,  procedure,  148-163 ;  with 
"iron,"  150;  with  "  pyro,"  156; 
with  hydrochinon,  158  ;  with  ei- 
konogen,  160  ;  transparencies,  194, 
195 ;  lantern  slides,  199 ;  enlarge- 
ments, 203. 

Developing  materials,  137. 

Diaphragms,  69-71. 

Draper,  Prof.  John,  makes  first  da- 
guerreotype portrait,  36. 

Drops,  size  of,  225. 

Dry  plates,  early  experiments  with, 
54-57  ;  Bennett's  success,  56. 

Easels,  for  enlarging,  202. 
Electric  light,  99. 
Elements,  table  of,  227. 
Enlargements,  200-203;  table  for, 
237. 

Evard,  Blanquart,  45. 
Exposer,  72-74. 

Eye,  human,  a  complete  camera, 
59,  60  i  aided  by  the  camera,  212- 
215. 

Fabricius,  his  discovery,  2. 
Faraday,  20. 
Fenelon's  story,  2. 
Ferrotypes,  52. 

Finder,  114 ;  in  hand  camera,  122. 

Fixing,  primary  image,  16  ;  with  hy- 
posulphite, 44,  154,  161 ;  silver 
prints,  174,  175 ;  bromide  prints, 
186. 

Focus,  principal,  68 ;  equivalent,  68, 
71 ;  focal  length,  68  ;  depth  of,  69. 

Focusing,  scale,  114,  115. 

Formulas,  for  dry  plate  development, 
150-160,  231;  for  printing  and 
toning  silver  prints,  164-177 ;  for 
"  blue  prints,"  177,  178  ;  for  plain 


242 


INDEX. 


paper  prints,  180,  181 ;  for  plati- 
num prints,  181-184 ;  for  bromide 
prints,  184-187  ;  for  carbon  prints, 
187-191;  for  lantern  slides,  195- 
200. 

Flashlight  photography,  98-108. 

Gallery,  operating,  76-78. 
Goddard,  bromide  introduced  by,  42. 
Groups,  by  flashlight,  105,  106 ;  out- 
of-doors,  121. 

Hand  Camera,  75  ;  use  of,  122-130. 
Hawthorne  and  daguerreotype,  138. 
Heliography,  23-26. 
Herschel,  Sir  Wm.,  discoveries  in 
light,  12. 

Instantaneous  photography,  214. 
Intensifying,  162. 

Interiors,  91-97  ;  by  flashlight,  106. 

Landscapes,  109-119. 
Lantern-slides,  195-200 ;  an  inter- 
change of,  218. 
Lea,  Carey,  55. 
Le  Gray,  45,  47. 

Lenses,  first,  5 ;  different  forms,  59- 
71 ;  portrait,  83 ;  landscape,  117. 

Light,  chemical  action  of,  2-4,  223, 
224 ;  action  of  different  rays,  11- 
14  ;  in  dark  room,  137-147. 

Lighting,  in  portraiture,  79,  83 ;  in- 
teriors, 91-94 ;  with  flashlight,  103. 

Lightning,  photographs  of,  108 ; 
213. 

Linear  distortion,  66. 

Magazine  Camera,  128. 
Magnesium  light,  100. 
Maynard,  produces  collodion,  46. 
Micro-photographs,  211. 
Microscope  and  the  camera,  210,  211. 
Monckhoven,  Dr.  von,  57. 
Morse,  brings  Daguerre's  process  to 

America,  36. 
Mounting  prints,  175. 

Negative,  theory  of,  131-135. 

Niepce,  Isidore,  32,  33. 

Niepce,  Jos.  Nic^phore,  experiments, 

22-26  ;  partnership  with  Daguerre, 

29 ;  death,  30. 

"Photogenic  drawing,"  20. 
Photographic  rays  of  light,  13,  14. 
Photo-micrography,  210,  211. 
Piffard,  Dr.,  and  magnesium  light, 
100. 

Poisons  and  antidotes,  230. 
Porta,  Baptista,  and  camera  obscura, 
6. 

Portraits,  first  in  England,  43;  in 


home  gallery,  76-91;  with  flash- 
light,^; out-of-doors,  119;  groups, 
119. 
Posing,  85-90. 

Printing,  with  albumenized  paper, 
164-177  ;  with  f erro-prussiate  pa- 
per, 177,  178;  combination,  178, 
179 ;  with  "  plain  paper,"  180, 181; 
with  platinum  paper,  181-184 ;  with 
bromide  paper,  184-187;  with  car- 
bon paper,  187-191. 

Reade,  Rev.  J.  B.,  41. 

Reflectors,  80-83. 
Restraining,  153. 
Retouching,  135. 

Roche,  Tiphaine  de  la,  prophecy  of 
photography,  9. 

St.  Victor,  Niepce  de,  use  of  albu- 
men, 44. 

"  Saturated  solution,"  225. 

Scheele,  experiments,  10. 

Schonhein,  produces  gun-cotton,  96. 

Schultze,  J.  H.,  experiments,  10. 

Science  and  the  camera,  208-212. 

Scott-Archer,  Frederick,  introduces 
collodion  process,  46. 

Selection,  115-117. 

Senebier,  experiments,  11. 

Shutter,  or  exposer,  72-74. 

Silver  chloride,  discovered,  9 ;  exper- 
iments with,  9-16. 

Silver  prints,  164-177. 

Spectrum  colors,  4. 

Stas,  56. 

Steinheil,  aplanatic  lens,  67. 
Stereoscopic  photography,  229. 
Stops,  69-71. 

Talbot,  Henry  Fox,  17;  experiments, 
19 ;  fixes  the  image,  20 ;  describes 
his  discovery,  20 ;  value  of  his  dis- 
covery, 39,  40 ;  improves  his  pro- 
cess, 40  ;  his  calotype  prints,  41 ;  at 
Royal  Institute,  42. 

Taupenot  and  dry  plates,  54. 

Tayce,  J.  B.,  55. 

Telo-photographic  lens,  209,  210. 
"Tintypes"  (ferrotypes),  52,  53. 
Toning,  albumenized  paper,  171-174 ; 

blue  prints,  178. 
Transparencies,  192-195. 

Wall,  E.  J.,  on  marking  system  for 

diaphragms,  70. 
Wedgwood,  experiments,  15. 
Weights  and  measures,  228,  229. 
Wet -plate  process,  46-57. 
Window-portraiture,  79. 

"  X-ray  "  photography,  234. 


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Selected  and  arranged  by  Agnes  Repplier. 

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